
Glass 
Book 



COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT 



(^|)E Bitoetjjibe '!J5io0rapbica]l ^mt0 



ANDREW JACKSON, by W. G. Brown 
JAMES B. EADS, by Louis How 
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN, by Paul E. More 
PETER COOPER, by R. W. Raymond 
THOMAS JEFFERSON, by H. C. Mhrwin 
WILLIAM PENN.by George Hodges 
GENERAL GRANT, by Walter Allen. 
MERIWETHER LEWIS AND WILLIAM 

CLARK, by William R. Lighton. 
JOHN MARSHALL, by James B. Thayer. 

Each about loo pages, i6mo, with photogravure 
portrait, 75 cents ; School Edition, 50 cents, 
fiet 

HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN & CO. 
Boston and New York 



NUMBER 8 

LEWIS AND CLARK 

BY 

WILLIAM R. LIGHTON 



LEWIS AND CLARK 

]VIERIWETHER LEWIS 

AND 

WILLIAM CLARK 

BY 

WILLIAM R. LIGHTON 




J » > > > > 



BOSTON AND NEW YORK 
HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN AND COMPANY 

(Cbc Riter^iDe ^rej^iS, CambriDge 

1901 



THE LIBRARY OF 
CONGRESS, 

Two Copies Received 

APR. 30 1901 

COPYRKJHT ENTRY 

CtisS tl'XXc. N«. 
COPY B. 



. 7 



COPYRIGHT, 1901, BY WILLIAM R. LIGHTON 
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED 



• • • 



CONTENTS 

CHAP. P-^OB 

I. Characteristics 1 

II. The Expedition ..... 15 

III. Terms of the Commission ... 25 

IV. The Start 34 

V. With the Sioux 51 

VI. To the Falls of the Missouri . 69 

Vn. Over the Continental Divide . . 82 
VIII. The Last Stage of the Westward 

Journey 93 

IX. Winter on the Coast .... 107 

X. Homeward: In the Mountains . . 117 

XI. Recrossing the Divide .... 134 

XII. Home 142 

XIII. After Life 149 



LEWIS AND CLARK 



CHAPTER I 
CHARACTERISTICS 

In the years 1804, 1805, and 1806, two 
men commanded an expedition which ex- 
plored the wilderness that stretched from 
the mouth of the Missouri River to where 
the Columbia enters the Pacific, and dedi- 
cated to civilization a new empire. Their 
names were Meriwether Lewis and William 
Clark. 

As a rule, one who tries to discover and 
to set down in order the simple signs that 
spell the story of a large man's life is con- 
fused by a chaos of data. No such trouble 
arises in this case. There is great poverty 
of fact and circumstance in the records of 
the private lives of these men ; so careless 
were they of notoriety, so wholly did they 



2 LEWIS AND CLARK 

merge themselves in their work. Anything 
like ostentation was foreign to their taste, 
and to the spirit of their time, which took 
plain, dutiful heroism as a matter of course. 
No one knows any " characteristic anec- 
dotes " of Meriwether Lewis ; and the best 
stories about Clark are those preserved in 
the tribal histories of Western Indians. The 
separate identity of the two men is practi- 
cally lost to all except the careful reader. 
Each had his baptismal name, to be sure ; 
but even their private names are fused, and 
they are best known to us under the joint 
style of Lewis and Clark. In effect they 
were one and indivisible. For evidence of 
their individuality we must look to the la- 
bors which they performed in common. 

When, several years after the conclusion 
of the great expedition, the manuscript jour- 
nals were being prepared for publication, 
the editor could not find sufficient material 
out of which to make a memoir of Captain 
Lewis, and was forced to appeal to Mr. Jef- 
ferson for aid ; for Jefferson had been an 
early neighbor and friend of the Lewis fam- 



CHARACTERISTICS 3 

ily, and later, on becoming President, had 
made the lad Meriwether his private secre- 
tary, and had afterwards appointed him to 
direct the exploration. The sketch written 
by Mr. Jefferson is, like most of his papers, 
appreciative and vital. It is to this docu- 
ment, dated at Monticello, August 18, 1813, 
that every biographer must have recourse : — 
" Meriwether Lewis, late governor of 
Louisiana, was born on the 18th of August, 
1774, near the town of Charlottesville, in 
the county of Albemarle, in Virginia, of one 
of the distinguished families of that State. 
John Lewis, one of his father's uncles, was 
a member of the king's council before the 
Revolution. Another of them. Fielding 
Lewis, married a sister of General Wash- 
ington. His father, William Lewis, was the 
youngest of five sons of Colonel Robert Lewis 
of Albemarle, the fourth of whom, Charles, 
was one of the early patriots who stej^ped 
forward in the commencement of the Revo- 
lution, and commanded one of the regiments 
first raised in Virginia, and placed on conti- 
nental establishment. . . . Nicholas Lewis, 



4 LEWIS AND CLARK 

the second of his father's brothers, com- 
manded a regiment of militia in the success- 
ful expedition of 1776 against the Cherokee 
Indians. . . . This member of the family 
of the Lewises, whose bravery was so use- 
fully proved on this occasion, was endeared 
to all who knew him by his inflexible probity, 
courteous disposition, benevolent heart, and 
engaging modesty and manners. He was 
the umpire of all the private differences of 
his county, — selected always by both par- 
ties. He was also the guardian of Meri- 
wether Lewis, of whom we are now to 
speak, and who had lost his father at an 
early age. 

" He (Meriwether) continued some years 
under the fostering care of a tender mother, 
of the respectable family of Meriwethers, of 
the same county ; and was remarkable, even 
in infancy, for enterprise, boldness, and dis- 
cretion. 

" When only eight years of age he habitu- 
ally went out in the dead of night, alone 
with his dogs, into the forest to hunt the 
raccoon and opossum, which, seeking their 



CHARACTERISTICS 5 

food in the night, can then only be taken. 
In this exercise, no season or circumstance 
could obstruct his purpose — plunging 
through the winter's snows and frozen 
streams in pursuit of his object. At thir- 
teen he was put to the Latin school, and 
continued at that until eighteen, when he 
was returned to his mother, and entered on 
the cares of his farm ; having, as well as a 
younger brother, been left by his father with 
a competency for aU the correct and com- 
fortable purposes of temperate life. His 
talent for observation, which led him to an 
accurate knowledge of the plants and ani- 
mals of his own country, would have distin- 
guished him as a farmer ; but at the age of 
twenty, yielding to the ardor of youth and a 
passion for more dazzling pursuits, he en- 
gaged as a volunteer in the body of militia 
which was called out by General Washing- 
ton, on occasion of the discontents produced 
by the excise taxes in the western parts of 
the United States [the Whiskey Rebellion] ; 
and from that station he was removed to the 
regular service as a lieutenant of the line. 



6 LEWIS AND CLARK 

At twenty-three he was promoted to a cap- 
taincy ; and, always attracting the first at- 
tention where punctuah'ty and fidelity were 
requisite, he was appointed paymaster to his 
regiment." 

That is about all that is definitely known 
of Lewis's family and early life. It is not 
much; but it suffices to show that he came 
of fine, fearless stock, mettlesome and reli- 
ant, — the sort of stock that brings forth 
men of action. The invertebrate vanity of 
blood is kept out of this story, in accord 
with the democratic belief of the time that 
a strong man's ancestors are what he him- 
self makes them. They may have done 
their part well, but it remains for him to 
put the finishing touches to their reputation. 
Given a few sturdy souls, quick and willing 
to serve in time of need, and that was 
enough of family distinction. Behavior, 
rather than pedigree, made the Lewis char- 
acter. 

When Captain Lewis was appointed to 
command the expedition, he had served Mr. 
Jefferson for two years as private secretary. 



CHARACTERISTICS 7 

Concerning his fitness for public duties, Mr. 
Jefferson wrote : — 

" I liad now had opportunities of knowing 
him intimately. Of courage undaunted ; 
possessing a firmness and perseverance of 
purpose which nothing but impossibilities 
could divert from its direction ; careful as a 
father of those committed to his charge, yet 
steady in the maintenance of order and dis- 
cipline ; intimate with the Indian character, 
customs, and principles; habituated to the 
hunting life ; guarded, by exact observation 
of the vegetables and animals of his own 
country, against losing time in the descrip- 
tion of objects already possessed ; honest, 
disinterested, hberal, of sound understand- 
ing, and a fidelity to truth so scrupulous 
that whatever he should report would be as 
certain as if seen by ourselves — with all 
these qualifications, as if selected and im- 
planted by Nature in one body for this ex- 
press purpose, I could have no hesitation in 
confiding the enterprise to him. To fill up 
the measure desired, he wanted nothing but 
a greater familiarity with the technical Ian- 



8 LEWIS AND CLARK 

guage of the natural sciences, and readiness 
in the astronomical observations necessary 
for the geography of his route. To acquire 
these, he repaired immediately to Philadel- 
delphia, and placed himself under the tutor- 
age of the distinguished professors of that 
place, who, with a zeal and emulation en- 
kindled by an ardent devotion to science, 
communicated to him freely the information 
requisite for the purposes of the journey. 
While attending at Lancaster to the fabri- 
cation of the arms with which he chose that 
his men should be provided, he had the 
benefit of daily communication with Mr. 
Andrew ElHcott, whose experience in astro- 
nomical observation, and practice of it in 
the woods, enabled him to apprise Captain 
Lewis of the wants and difficulties he would 
encounter, and of the substitutes and re- 
sources afforded by a woodland and unin- 
habited country." 

It is plain that this astute judge of men 
reposed perfect confidence in his friend. 
From January, 1803, when Congress sanc- 
tioned the imdertaking, until May, 1804, 



CHARACTERISTICS 9 

when the party set out from St. Louis, the 
young officer had full charge of the intricate 
and difficult details of preparation. It was 
\ he who superintended the building of boats 
and the making of arms, accoutrements, sci- 
entific apparatus, and all equipment ; and, 
what was of more importance, he selected 
the men who were to form his command. 
That was a nice matter. It would have 
been worse than useless to lead a company 
of fretful dissenters. The expedition was to 
be conducted on a military basis ; but it was 
not ordinary field service ; it was a mission 
for picked men. Much would depend upon 
each man's natural aptitude for his task; 
much more would depend upon the integrity 
of the corps as a whole. The consummate 
wisdom of Lewis's selection of his aids 
shines from every page of the journals. 
None of the men seemed to need instruc- 
tion in the cardinal elements of conduct ; 
each was as sensible of his trust as Lewis 
himself. It was in this spirit of the subor- 
dinates, rather than in the absolute authority 
of the captain, that success was to lie. 



10 LEWIS AND CLARK 

To guard against untoward accident, that 
might thwart the work, Lewis wished to 
have a companion in command. This pleased 
Mr. Jefferson, and the choice fell upon Cap- 
tain William Clark. 

William Clark was the ninth of a family 
of ten children. His father was John Clark, 
second, who, like his father before him, was 
a Virginian, living in King and Queen 
County. The pioneering spirit was strong 
in the family, — the Wanderlust^ that keeps 
[man's nature fluid and adaptable. This led 
John, second, to remove first to Albemarle 
County, and later to Caroline County, where 
William was born on August 1, 1770, not 
far from the birthplace of Meriwether 
Lewis. 

When the boy was about fourteen years 
of age, the family moved once more, into the 
dim West, settling at the place now known 
as Louisville, in Kentucky. William's elder 
brother, George Rogers Clark, had preceded 
the others, and had built the first fortifica- 
tion against the Indians at the Falls of the 
Ohio, around which were clustered a few of 



CHARACTERISTICS 11 

the rude dwellings of the frontiersmen. 
At this place, amidst the crudest conditions 
of the Kentucky border, the lad grew to ma- 
turity. That was not an orderly life; it 
was rather a continuing state of suspense, 
demanding of those who shared in it con- 
stant hardiliood and fortitude. For the 
right-minded man, however, it had incalcu- 
lable value. Many of the strongest ex- 
amples of our national character have been 
. men who owed the best that was in them to 
the apparently unkindly circumstances of 
their youth. What was denied to Clark in 
easy opportunity had ample compensation in 
the firmness and seK-reliance which came 
from mastering difficulties. 

To read Clark's letters and papers is to 
discover that his education in the politer 
branches of learning was as primitive as the 
surroundings of his home. It is plain that 
the training which prepared him for man- 
hood was got mostly outside the schoolroom. 
Like Lewis, he chose a military career. 
When he was but eighteen years of age, he 
was appointed ensign in the regular army ; 



12 LEWIS AND CLARK 

and two years later he was made captain of 
militia in the town of Clarksville, "in the 
Territory of the United States North West 
of the Ohio River." In 1791 he was com- 
missioned as a lieutenant of infantry, under 
Wayne, and served afterward as adjutant 
and quartermaster. Ill health led him to 
resign his commission in the army in 1796. 

A few months before his resignation he 
first became acquainted with Meriwether 
Lewis, who, as an ensign, was put under his 
command. Then began one of those gener- 
ous and enduring friendships that are all 
too rare amongst men. It is not known just 
what their private relations were in the 
meantime; but in 1803, upon Lewis's ear- 
nest solicitation, Captain Clark consented to 
quit his retirement upon his Kentucky farm 
and join in that work which was destined to 
be but the beginning of his real usefulness. 

He comes to us out of the dark. We 
must forego intimate knowledge of his 
growth, being content with fuiding him 
full-grown and ready. No doubt his service 
in the army, where he was associated with 



CHARACTERISTICS 13 

men of ability, had helped him to master 
many details of engineering craft, which he 
was to use in his later service. But this 
was at most incidental ; his strength, his 
power to serve, was native, not acquired. 

That they might share alike in all partic- 
ulars of rank and responsibility in the expe- 
dition, it was understood that Lewis would 
endeavor to procure for Clark a captain's 
commission. Clark wrote to Nicholas Bid- 
die (the editor of the journals) in 1811 : — 

" On these conditions I agreed to under- 
take the expedition made my arrangements, 
and set out, and proceeded on with Capt. 
Lewis to the mouth of the Missouri where 
we remained the winter 1803 made every 
necessary arrangement to set out early in 
spring 1804 everything arranged I waited 
with some anxiety for the commission which 
I had reason to expect (Capt. of Indion- 
eers [Engineers]) a fiew days before I set 
out I received a Commission of 2d Lieuten- 
ant of Artillerist, my feelings on this occa- 
sion was as might be expected. I wished 
the expedition suckcess, and from the assur- 



14 LEWIS AND CLARK 

ence of Capt. Lewis that in every respect 
my situation command &c. &c. should be 
equal to his ; viewing the Commission as 
mearly calculated to authorise punislmient 
to the soldiers if necessary, I proceeded. 
No difficuelty took place on our rout relative 
to this point. ..." 

In the very nature of things, personal 
difficulty of a petty sort could not arise. 
Official rank was as nothing between them. 
They were capable and loyal ; the morale 
of their party was ideal ; and under their 
guidance was wrought out what has been 
well called our national epic of exploration. 



CHAPTER II 

THE EXPEDITION 

For almost twenty years prior to the or- 
ganization of tlie Lewis and Clark expedi- 
tion, and long before the general public was 
more than passively curious upon the sub- 
ject of Louisiana, Jefferson had nourished 
the plan for exploring the Louisiana Terri- 
tory. In the memoir above referred to, 
he wrote : — 

" While I resided in Paris, John Led- 
yard, of Connecticut, arrived there, well 
known in the United States for energy of 
body and mind. He had accompanied Cap- 
tain Cook on his voyage to the Pacific 
Ocean, and distinguished himself on that 
voyage by his intrepidity. Being of a roam- 
ing disposition, he was now panting for 
some new enterprise. His immediate object 
at Paris was to engage a mercantile com- 
pany in the fur trade of the western coast 



16 LEWIS AND CLARK 

of America, in which, however, he failed. I 
then proposed to him to go by land to Kam- 
chatka, cross in some of the Russian vessels 
to Nootka Sound, fall down into the lati- 
tude of the Missouri, and penetrate to and 
through that to the United States. He 
eagerly seized the idea, and only asked to be 
assured of the permission of the Russian 
government." 

The consent of the Empress of Russia was 
obtained, together with an assurance of pro- 
tection while the course of travel lay across 
her territory ; and Ledyard set out. While 
he was yet two hundred miles from Kam- 
chatka, winter overtook him, and there he 
was forced to remain through many months. 
In the spring, as he was preparing to go on, 
he was put under arrest. The Empress, ex- 
ercising the inalienable right of sovereign 
womanhood, had changed her mind. The 
reason for this change is not apparent. 
There may have been no reason more potent 
than international jealousy, which was lively 
in those days. At any rate, Ledyard was 
put into a close carriage and conveyed to 



THE EXPEDITION 17 

Poland, traveling day and night, without 
once stopping. He was left in Poland pen- 
niless and broken in body and spirit, and 
soon afterward died. 

Later, in 1792, Jefferson proposed to the 
American Philosophical Society that a sub- 
scription be raised to engage some one to as- 
cend the Missouri, cross the mountains, and 
descend to the Pacific. In order to preclude 
alarm to the Indians or to other nations, it 
was intended that this expedition should 
consist of only two persons. Meriwether 
Lewis, then eighteen years of age, begged 
to have this commission, and it was given 
him. His one companion was to be a French 
botanist, Andre Michaux. The journey 
was actually begun, when it was discovered 
that Michaux was residing in the United 
States in the capacity of a spy. Once again 
the plan was deferred. 

"In 1803," wrote Mr. Jefferson, "the 
act for establishing trading houses with the 
Indian tribes being about to expire, some 
modifications of it were recommended to 
Congress by a confidential message of Janu- 



18 LEWIS AND CLARK 

ary 18th, and an extension of its views to 
the Indians of the Missouri. In order to 
prepare the way, the message proposed the 
sending an exploring party to trace the Mis- 
souri to its source, to cross the Highlands, 
and follow the best water communication 
which offered itself from thence to the Pa- 
cific Ocean. Congress approved the propo- 
sition, and voted a sum of money for carry- 
ing it into execution. Captain Lewis, who 
had then been near two years with me as 
private secretary, immediately renewed his 
solicitations to have the direction of the 
party." 

Naturally, Mr. Jefferson was strongly in- 
clined to intrust this work to his friend 
Lewis. Their official and private relations 
had been intimate ; Mr. Jefferson had had 
ample opportunities for testing the fibre of 
the young man's character under strain ; be- 
sides, Lewis's confidential position had no 
doubt made him acquainted with the inner 
details of the plan, its broader significance, 
and the political obstacles to be overcome in 
carrying it into effect. Aside from his 



THE EXPEDITION 19 

temperamental disposition for sucli an enter- 
prise, his public service had strengthened 
his grasp of national interests ; enthusiasm 
for adventure had been supplemented by- 
maturity of judgment in affairs of state. 
Altogether, a better man for the place could 
not have been found. 

To carry out the work of the organized 
expedition would consist largely in surmount- 
ing physical difficulties ; but to organize it 
and get it fairly started demanded consid- 
erable delicacy of diplomatic contrivance. 
The life of the nation, as it sought to ex- 
pand and take form, was beset and harassed, 
north, south, and west, by international com- 
plications growing out of direct contact with 
unfriendly neighbors. In that day the 
United States did not sustain cordial rela^ 
tions with any of the strong nations of the 
world. The internal machinery of the new 
government was not yet in perfect adjust- 
ment ; domestic crises were constantly re- 
curring ; permanence of democratic forms 
and methods was not by any means assured ; 
the country had not established an indispu- 



20 LEWIS AND CLARK 

table right to be reckoned with in matters 
of international concern. Russia alone, of 
all the powers, was considered as friendly. 
Even in that case, however, there was no- 
thing warmer than watcliful neutralit}'. 
Russian and American interests had not yet 
conflicted. 

The British, through the strong trading 
companies of Canada, were hot for getting 
control of the Indian traffic of the North- 
west — indeed, their prestige was already 
quite firmly fixed, and they were on their 
guard against any semblance of encroach- 
ment upon that domain of activity. This 
condition, coupled with other and acuter 
differences, made it highly probable that 
England would not take kindly to the expe- 
dition, should its object be openly avowed. 

Spanish opposition would be even stronger. 
Spain had but lately surrendered posses- 
sion of the Louisiana Territory, whence her 
agents had for a long time derived large 
revenues from the Indian trade, after the 
age-long manner she has pursued in dealing 
with her colonies and dependencies. Spain 



THE EXPEDITION 21 

still lield the Floridas, practically control- 
ling the commerce of the Gulf and the navi- 
gation of the Mississippi ; so that, while the 
people of the United States asserted the 
right of depot at New Orleans and the fur- 
ther right of passage of the river throughout 
its length, their enjoyment of these rights 
was precarious. Further, though the crown 
had transferred the territory west of the 
Mississippi, its subjects had not quit their 
efforts for supremacy in trade ; their influ- 
ence long outlived the extinction of territorial 
rights. Bitterly hostile to the growth of 
American ideas, they would certainly do 
what they could to oppose the expedition. 

It was with France, however, that our 
government had to deal directly. In 1800 
Napoleon had acquired title to Louisiana, 
trading with Spain, giving in exchange the 
little kingdom of Etruria. But his control 
of the territory was more tacit than actual ; 
he was so busily engaged at home that he 
found no time to reduce his property to 
possession; his dominion west of the Mis- 
sissijDpi was never more than potential. War 



22 LEWIS AND CLARK 

between France and England was imminent. 
Napoleon liad in America no adequate means 
for defending his new domain, whicli would 
therefore be likely to fall into the hands of 
the British at once upon the outbreak of war. 
He was growing anxious to be rid of the load. 
Jefferson thought it probable that the terri- 
tory would one day belong to the United 
States, — indeed, negotiations were pending 
for the transfer when the " confidential com- 
munication " to Congress was written, in Jan- 
uary, 1803. Although the outcome was still 
problematical, Jefferson considered that the 
proper time for discovering what the land 
held ; and this was the primary purpose of 
the Lewis and Clark expedition. 

For all of these reasons, and more, it was 
deemed necessary to cover from general view 
the real character of the enterprise. The 
appropriation by Congress was made for the 
ostensible and innocent purpose of " extend- 
ing the external commerce of the United 
States." In his letter to Congress, which 
was for a long time kept secret, Mr. Jefferson 
said that France would regard this as in the 



THE EXPEDITION 23 

nature of a " literary pursuit," and that 
whatever distrust she might feel would be 
allayed. But, though his ulterior purposes 
were sought to be concealed, the powers of 
France no doubt knew well enough what 
was in the wind. 

It was on June 30, 1803, that Jefferson 
gave to Captain Lewis detailed instructions 
for the conduct of his work. In the mean- 
time (on April 30th), treaties had been 
signed at Paris, ceding Louisiana to the 
United States. That was a distinct triumph 
for American statecraft. On the one hand 
were ranged Napoleon, Talleyrand, and Mar- 
bois ; on the other, Jefferson, Livingston, 
and Monroe. The French were at a disad- 
vantage ; their position was that of holding 
perishable goods, which must be sold to avoid 
catastrophe. Napoleon said, not without rea- 
son, that the government of the United States 
availed itself of his distress incident to the 
impending struggle with England. However 
that may be, the territory changed owners for 
a consideration of 815,000,000. 

Formal notification of the transfer was 



24 LEWIS AND CLARK 

not received in Washington until the early- 
part of July, when active preparations for 
the exploration were being made. Its re- 
ceipt did not alter the character of the ex- 
pedition, though many of the international 
complications were dissipated. Thereafter 
the work was purely domestic in most of its 
aspects. 



CHAPTER III 

TERMS OF THE COMMISSION 

Mr. Jefferson's instructions to the young 
officer showed his own farsighted earnest- 
ness. Had he who received them been any 
less in earnest, the task assigned to him 
must have seemed appalling. The primary 
instruction was to blaze a path, more than 
four thousand miles long, through an un- 
studied wilderness. It was conceived that 
this could best be done by following the 
Missouri to its head waters, crossing " the 
Highlands " to the navigable waters of the 
Columbia, and going down that river to the 
Pacific ; but this was only conjectural. The 
map in the hands of the explorers, the only 
basis for a preliminary outline of their route, 
was drawn partly from hearsay, partly from 
imagination ; it showed the source of the 
Missouri to be somewhere in Central Cali- 
fornia ; it showed nothing of the mighty 



26 LEWIS AND CLARK 

barrier of the Rocky Mountains. There 
was one thin, uncertain line of hills, far to 
the west, that might have been the Sierra 
Nevadas ; further than that there was no- 
thing but a broad interior plain, seamed with 
rivers. Practically nothing was known of 
the difficulties that would be encountered. 
White men had ventured for a little way up 
the Missouri in earlier years, to carry on a 
desultory fur-trade with the Indians ; but 
these traders had been mostly happy-go- 
lucky Frenchmen, who had taken but little 
thought for the morrow. They had no trust- 
worthy information to give that would be of 
service to scientific travelers. So far as sure 
knowledge of it was concerned, the land was 
virgin, and Lewis and Clark were to be its 
discoverers. 

They were directed to explore it in de- 
tail. Observations of latitude and longitude 
were to be made at all points of particular 
interest. The native nations and tribes en- 
countered along the way were to be studied 
with care, and record preserved of their 
names and numbers ; the extent and bound- 



TERMS OF THE COMMISSION 27 

aries of their possessions ; their relations 
with other tribes and nations ; their lan- 
guage, traditions, and monuments ; their oc- 
cupations, implements, food, clothing, and 
domestic accommodations ; their diseases and 
methods of cure ; their physical, social, 
moral, and religious peculiarities and cus- 
toms ; their ideas and practice of commerce, 
and the possibility of extending among them 
the influences of civilization, — in short, 
every circumstance was to be noted which 
might render future relations with these peo- 
ple intelligent. Particular attention was to 
be given to the state of feeling toward the 
whites, in those tribes which had had expe- 
rience with the traders. Should the expe- 
dition succeed in reaching the Pacific, the 
conditions of trade upon the coast were to 
form a subject of special inquiry. Along 
the route full observations were directed to 
be made concerning the face of the country, 
— the contour of the land ; the character 
and course of streams, their suitability as 
avenues of commerce, and the means of 
communication between them ; and also the 



28 LEWIS AND CLARK 

points best adapted to the establishment of 
trading-stations and fortifications. The con- 
ditions of agricultural development were to 
be noted as fully as might be, — soil, water- 
supply, climate, and change of seasons ; and 
also the natural resources of the country, 
vegetable, animal, and mineral. Nothing 
was to be neglected, knowledge of which 
might contribute to the success or security 
of later enterprise. 

" In all your intercourse with the na- 
tives," wrote Mr. Jefferson, " treat them in 
the most friendly and conciliatory manner 
which their own conduct will admit ; allay 
all jealousies as to the object of your jour- 
ney ; satisfy them of its innocence ; make 
them acquainted with the position, extent, 
character, peaceable and commercial disposi- 
tions of the United States ; of our wish to 
be neighborly, friendly, and useful to them, 
and of our dispositions to a commercial in- 
tercourse with them ; confer with them on 
the points most convenient as mutual empo- 
riums, and the articles of most desirable in- 
terchange for them and us. If a few of 



TERMS OF THE COMMISSION 29 

their influential chiefs, within practicable 
distance, wish to visit us, arrange such a 
visit with them, and furnish them with au- 
thority to call on our officers, on their enter- 
ing the United States, to have them con- 
veyed to this place at the public expense. 
If any of them should wish to have some of 
their people brought up with us, and taught 
such arts as may be useful to them, we will 
receive, instruct, and take care of them." 

As it could not be foreseen in what man- 
ner the travelers would be received by the 
Indians, whether with hospitality or hostil- 
ity, Captain Lewis was told to use his own 
discretion as to persevering with the enter- 
prise in the face of opposition ; and he was 
also told that should he succeed in getting 
through to the Pacific, he might choose his 
own means for getting back again, — ship- 
ping by way of Cape Horn or the Cape of 
Good Hope, if chance offered ; or, in the 
absence of such opportunity, returning over- 
land. A precious liberty, tridy, when read 
in the light of the facts. The instructions 
concluded with this frank paragi'aph : — 



30 J.EWIS AND CLARK 

" As you will be without money, clothes, 
or provisions, you must endeavor to use the 
credit of the United States to obtain them ; 
for which purpose open letters of credit 
shall be furnished you, authorizing you to 
draw on the executive of the United States, 
or any of its officers, in any part of the 
world in which drafts can be disposed of, 
and to apply with our recommendations to 
the consuls, agents, merchants, or citizens of 
any nation with which we have intercourse, 
assuring them in our name that any aids 
they may furnish you shall be honorably re- 
paid, and on demand." 

As events transpired, that paragraph was 
almost ironical. A letter of credit directed 
to the Man in the Moon would have served 
quite as well. 

The two redoubtable captains were to be 
soldiers, sailors, explorers, geographers, eth- 
nologists, botanists, geologists, chemists, di- 
plomats, missionaries, financiers, and histori- 
ans ; also cooks, tailors, shoemakers, hunters, 
trappers, fishermen, scouts, woodcutters, 
boatbuilders, carpenters, priests, and doctors. 



TERMS OF THE COMMISSION 31 

From the time they left St. Louis, in May, 
1804, until they returned to that place, in 
September, 1806, the men were cut o£P from 
civilization and all its aids, and left to work 
out their own salvation. Not for one mo- 
ment were they dismayed ; not in a single 
particular did they fail to accomplish what 
had been assigned to them. 

The congressional appropriation for the 
purposes of the expedition was based upon 
an estimate made by Captain Lewis himself, 
which is so refreshing as to deserve literal 
quotation : — 

Recapitulation of an estimate of the sum neces- 
sary to carry into effect the Miss^^ 
Expedicion 

Mathematical Instruments $217 

Arms and accoutrements extraordinary 81 

Camp Ecquipage 255 

Medicine and packing ., 55 

Means of transportation 430 

Indian presents 696 

Provisions extraordinary 224 

Materials for making up the various arti- 
cles into portable packs 55 



32 LEWIS AND CLARK 

For the pay of hunters, guides and inter- 
preters 300 

In silver coin, to defray the expences of 
the party from Nashville to the last 
white settlement on the Missisourie .... 100 

Contingencies 87 

Total $2500 

Eighty-seven dollars for the contingencies 
of a twenty-eight months' journey of discov- 
ery, more than eight thousand miles in 
length, with a company of forty-five men, 
and through a land literally unknown ! 

Captain Lewis set out from Washington 
in July, 1803, and was joined by Captain 
Clark at LouisviUe, whence they proceeded 
to the rendezvous on the Mississippi, near 
St. Louis. They intended to embark upon 
their course in the autumn ; but several de- 
lays occurred, of one sort and another, and 
the party was not assembled until December. 
The officers wished to establish winter quar- 
ters at the last white settlement on the Mis- 
souri, a few miles above St. Louis ; but the 
Spanish governor of the territory had not 
yet learned of the change in ownership, and 



TERMS OF THE COMMISSION 33 

would not suffer them to proceed. This 
compelled them to remain in the lower camp 
imtil spring. The winter months were not 
lost, however ; they were passed in drilling 
and instructing the men in the details of the 
work before them, thus greatly increasing 
their efficiency and no doubt obviating de- 
lays at later times. 



CHAPTER IV 

THE START 

As it was first organized, the party con- 
sisted of twenty-nine members, — the two 
officers, nine young Kentuckians, fourteen 
soldiers of the regular army who had volun- 
teered to accompany the expedition, two 
French watermen, an interpreter and hunter, 
and a negro servant of Captain Clark. At 
St. Louis there were sixteen additional re- 
cruits, — an Indian hunter and interpreter, 
and fifteen boatmen, who were to go as far 
as the villages of the Mandan Nation. This 
brought the total to forty-five. 

A broadly inclusive statement must suf- 
fice to characterize the non-commissioned 
men. They were brave, sturdy, able ; amen- 
able to discipline, yet fuU of original re- 
source ; ideal subordinates, yet almost every 
one fitted by nature for command, if occa- 
sion should arise. They proved themselves 



THE START 35 

equal to all emergencies. At least five of 
these men kept journals, and no better in- 
dex to their character need be asked than 
that afforded by the manuscript records. 
If ever there was temptation to color and 
adorn a narrative with the stuff that makes 
travelers' tales attractive, it was here ; yet 
in none of the journals is there to be found 
a departure from plain, simple truth-telling. 
Their matter-of-fact tone would render them 
almost commonplace, if the reader did not 
take pains to remember what it all meant. 
Nowhere is there anything like posing for 
effect ; the nearest approach to it is in the 
initial entry in the diary of that excellent 
Irishman, Private Patrick Gass, — and 
parts of this have been branded as apocry- 
phal, the interpolation of an enthusiastic 
editor : — 

« On Monday, 14 of May, 1804, we left 

jour establishment at the mouth of the Kiver 

|du Bois, or Wood River, a small river which 

falls into the Mississippi, on the east side, a 

.mile below the Missouri, and having crossed 

the Mississippi proceeded up the Missouri 



36 LEWIS AND CLARK 

on our intended voyage of discovery, under 
the command of Captain Clarke. Captain 
Lewis was to join us in two or three days 
on our passage. . . . The expedition was 
embarked on board a batteau and two peri- 
ogues. The day was showery, and in the 
evening we encamped on the north bank, six 
miles up the river. Here we had leisure to 
reflect on our situation, and the nature of 
our engagements : and as we had all entered 
this service as volunteers, to consider how 
far we stood pledged for the success of an 
expedition which the government had pro- 
jected ; and which had been undertaken for 
the benefit and at the expence of the Union : 
of course of much interest and high expecta- 
tion. 

" The best authenticated accounts in- 
formed us that we were to pass through a 
country possessed by numerous, powerful, 
and warlike nations of savages, of gigantic 
stature, fierce, treacherous, and cruel ; and 
particularly hostile to white men. And 
fame had imited with tradition in opposing 
mountains to our course, which human en- 



THE START 37 

terprlze and exertion would attempt in vain 
to pass. The determined and resolute char- 
acter, however, of the corps, and the confi- 
dence which pervaded all ranks dispelled 
every emotion of fear and anxiety for the 
present ; while a sense of duty, and of the 
honor which would attend the completion of 
the object of the expedition ; a wish to grat- 
ify the expectations of the government, and 
of our fellow-citizens, with the feelings which 
novelty and discovery invariably inspire, 
seemed to insure to us ample support in our 
future toils, suffering, and danger." 

In Captain Clark's journal there is no- 
thing of this sort. The opening entry is a 
bare memorandum of latitude and longitude, 
a note as to the appearance of the river banks, 
and a statement of the number of miles cov- 
ered during the day, — a memorable achieve- 
ment in modesty. 

Of the boats in which the party was em- 
barked, the batteau was a keel-vessel fifty- 
five feet in length, carrying a large square 
sail, and manned by twenty-two oars. In 
the bow and stern, ten-foot decks formed 



38 LEWIS AND CLARK 

forecastle and cabin ; and in the middle part 
were lockers, whose tops could be raised to 
form a line of breastworks along either gun- 
wale, in case of attack from Indians. The 
" periogues " were open boats, manned by six 
and seven oars. Besides these conveyances 
for the men and baggage, horses were led 
along the banks of the river, to be used by 
the hunters in their daily occupations and 
for service in emergency. The officers had 
observed the wise rule of travelers, and had 
sought to simphfy their equipment to the 
last degree. 

The name of Lower Missouri attached to 
that part of the river between its mouth and 
the entrance of the Platte. Over so much 
of the route the expedition passed quietly. 
A few notes from the journals will suffice 
to show the nature of the daily labors. 

May 16th the party stopped at the village 
of St. Charles, a typical French settlement 
of the frontier, twenty-one miles above St. 
Louis ; and under that date occurs this ad- 
mirable note : — 

" The inhabitants, about 450 in number, 



THE START 39 

are chiefly descendants from the French of 
Canada. In their manners they unite all 
the careless gayety and amiable hospitality 
of the best times of France. Yet, like most 
of their countrymen in America, they are 
but little qualified for the rude life of the 
frontier, — not that they are without talent, 
for they possess much natural genius and 
vivacity ; not that they are destitute of en- 
terprise, for their hunting excursions are 
long, laborious, and hazardous ; but their 
exertions are all desultory; their industry 
is without system and without perseverance. 
The surrounding country, therefore, though 
rich, is not generally well cultivated; the 
inhabitants chiefly subsist by hunting and 
trade with the Indians, and confine their 
culture to gardening, in which they excel." 

It would be difficult to find a juster or 
more accurate characterization of the French 
as pioneers. Although in the early days of 
settlement along the Mississippi and its tribu- 
taries they outnumbered the people of other 
nations, they made no deep impression. They 
got along admirably while they were sus- 



40 LEWIS AND CLARK 

tained by the tonic-stimulus of excitement 
and variety; but when that was removed, 
they found the conquest of even the richest 
of lands too dull for their tastes. Lacking 
stability of nature, they could not achieve 
solid results in prosaic labor. They did not 
so much as lay a foundation for the serious 
builders of after years. 

May 22d, in camp on Good Man's River, 
the party made its first trade with Indians. 
Some Kickapoos were engaged to procure 
provisions ; they brought in four deer, and 
were given in return two quarts of whiskey, 
which they considered ample requital. 

" May 25th. . . . Stopped for the night 
at the entrance of a creek on the north side, 
called by the French La Charette, ten miles 
from our last camp, and a little above a 
small village of the same name. It consists 
of seven small houses, and as many poor 
families, who have fixed themselves here for 
the convenience of trade. They form the 
last establishment of whites on the Mis- 
souri." 

La Charette was one of the earliest colo- 



THE START 41 

nies, and famous as the far western home of 
Daniel Boone. There that immortal fron- 
tiersman passed the last years of his life, in 
the sweet luxury of quiet and freedom ; and 
there he died in the year 1820. 

Throughout those first weeks the journals 
breathe content. Every man was abundantly 
pleased with his work and his lot ; game was 
plentiful, in great variety ; the difficulties to 
be overcome were no more than those at- 
tending the navigation of a swift and turbu- 
lent river, whose erratic channel was filled 
with sand-bars and dead timber. The travel- 
ers were enjoying a typical prairie season of 
the lower altitudes, which makes an ideal 
setting for outdoor life. Here and there 
they came in contact with friendly bands of 
Indians ; occasionally they encountered boats 
upon the river, manned by traders, who were 
drifting with the current to St. Louis, bear- 
ing the plunder of a season's traffic. Upon 
the banks of the stream were many tokens 
of the inconstancy of purpose of the border 
life, — abandoned sites of Indian villages 
and deserted fortifications that had been 



^ LEWIS AND CLARK 

erected by traders to serve for temporary 
convenience and protection. Nowhere was 
there a sign of the American interpretation 
of the word " enterprise." 

On June 26th they reached the mouth of 
the Kansas River, now marked by Kansas 
City. There they camped for two days ; 
there they fell in with the Kansas Indians, 
with whom they held a pacific conference ; 
and there the hunters met for the first time 
with buffalo. Forty-three days had been 
consimied in crossing what is now the State^ 
of Missouri. 

July 26th camp was made at the mouth 
of the Platte River, six hundred miles from 
St. Louis, where the town of Plattsmouth, 
Neb., stands ; and that date marked a radical 
change in the duties and conduct of the ex- 
pedition. The disposition of the Indians of 
the Lower Missouri was already pretty well 
known, so that no time had been spent in 
establishing relations with them. They were 
still mostly unspoiled savages, to be sure; 
but they were acquainted with the appear- 
ance of the whites, at least, and their bearing 



THE START 43 

toward traders and colonists had been for the 
most part decent. But the situation upon 
the Upper Missouri was altogether different. 
Although the problem might not be defi- 
nitely stated, because many of its factors 
were unknown, it could be foreseen that a 
solution would tax the genius of civilization. 
The dominant nations of the plains Indians 
— those whose numerical strength and war- 
like character made them feared by their 
neighbors — had their domain above the 
Platte. The Sioux in particular had a 
mighty reputation, established by treachery 
and ferocity in war. Their history recorded 
a constant succession of cruel wars, most of 
which had had no justification save in arro- 
gance and bloody-mindedness. They did not 
want to live at peace ; for peace signified 
to them a state of craven inanition. The 
mission of Lewis and Clark was directed 
pointedly against that manner of behavior ; 
they were not only to secure themselves 
against hostility, but were also to endeavor 
to reconcile the warring tribes and nations 
to one another. That was an undertaking 
calling for a high degree of tact and courage. 



44 LEWIS AND CLARK 

From a camp a few miles above the Platte, 
where the party remained for several days, 
messengers were sent to the villages of the 
Pawnees and Otoes, fifty miles to the west- 
ward, bearing gifts, with an invitation to a 
council. Through wars and other disasters, 
the Otoes were then much reduced in num- 
bers, as in almost every item of the savage 
code of efficiency and independence. In 
their weakened state they had formed an 
alliance with the Pawnees, — a primitive 
adaptation of the idea of a protectorate. 
The Pawnees had considerable strength, and 
they were in character much above the In- 
dian average, living in permanent villages, 
where they sustained themselves by culti- 
vating cornfields and hunting the buffalo. 

After carefully reconnoitring the lower 
Platte valley and the surrounding country, 
the expedition passed onward, traveling 
slowly to allow the Indians to overtake 
them. On the 27th they passed the pre- 
sent site of Omaha ; and on the 80th en- 
camped at a point twelve or fifteen miles to 
the north. It was this camp, pitched where 



THE START 45 

the village of CaLhoiin, Neb., now stands, that 
received the name of Council Bluff, which 
was later appropriated by an Iowa town. 
Here, on August 2d, aj)peared a small band 
of Otoes and Missouris, with a Frenchman 
who resided among them. Presents were ex- 
changed, and the officers requested a council 
upon the following morning. 

" August 3d. This morning the Indians, 
with their six chiefs, were all assembled 
under an awning formed with the mainsail, 
in presence of all our party, paraded for the 
occasion. A speech was then made announc- 
ing to them the change in the government, 
our promise of protection, and advice as to 
their future conduct. All the six chiefs re- 
plied to our speech, each in his turn, accord- 
ing to rank. They expressed their joy at 
the change in the government ; their hopes 
that we would recommend them to their 
Great Father (the President), that they 
might obtain trade and necessaries ; they 
wanted arms as well for hunting as for 
defense, and asked our mediations between 
them and the Mahas, with whom they are 



46 LEWIS AND CLARK 

now at war. We promised to do so, and 
wished some of them to accompany us to 
that nation, which they declined, for fear of 
being killed by them. We then proceeded 
to distribute our presents. The grand chief 
of the nation not being of the party, we sent 
him a flag, a medal, and some ornaments for 
clothing. To the six chiefs who were pre- 
sent, we gave a medal of the second grade 
to one Otoe chief and one Missouri chief ; 
a medal of the third grade to two inferior 
chiefs of each nation — the customary mode 
of recogmizing a chief being to place a medal 
round his neck, which is considered among 
his tribe as a proof of his consideration 
abroad. Each of these medals was accom- 
panied by a present of paint, garters, and 
cloth ornaments of dress ; and to these we 
added a canister of powder, a bottle of 
whiskey, and a few presents to the whole, 
which appeared to make them perfectly satis- 
fied. The air-gun, too, was fired, and aston- 
ished them greatly. . . ." 

This was the first important conference 
with the natives. If it was not rich in results, 



THE START 47 

it served at least the temporary purpose of 
putting these allied tribes in a good humor by 
satisfying their sense of their own dignity. 
Nothing more was to be expected. It is weU 
to say outright, as a commentary upon all 
meetings such as this, that no council with 
Indians, however ceremonioiis or solemn, has 
results more permanent than those which 
attend the purely diplomatic relations of 
civilized nations. 

In all our intercourse with the Indians, 
from the very beginning, too much stress 
has been laid upon the importance and the 
binding obligation of formal pow-wows. We 
have been unduly conscious of our own 
cunning, while undervaluing the craft that 
is native to all wild peoples ; we have too 
often lost sight of the one really imperative 
element in any compact that is to be effec- 
tive and enduring, — mutuality of honorable 
purpose. Most men, whether civilized or 
savage, can appreciate honest motives and 
behavior ; and so can they detect dishonest 
wiles and artifices. Lewis and Clark knew 
well enough what was before them. The In- 



48 LEWIS AND CLARK 

dians' past experience with the light-minded 
French and the evil-minded Spanish adven- 
turers of the border had left a deep impres- 
sion; it had made them wary, if not dis- 
trustful, of white men's protestations. This 
impression was not to be removed by merely 
sitting around in a circle and making 
speeches ; it could only be removed by long 
and intimate association in the affairs of 
actual life. If the whites meant well, they 
would do well, argued the Indians. To do 
well was a matter of time. The most that 
Lewis and Clark hoped for was to establish 
peace with the natives, to prepare the way 
for confidence and trust. Meanwhile they 
knew that they would need to be constantly 
upon their guard. 

On August 19th one of the non-commis- 
sioned officers, Sergeant Charles Floyd, was 
taken ill, and on the next day he died. This 
was the only death to occur in the party 
throughout the course of the expedition. 

The entries in Captain Clark's journals 
for those two days are thoroughly character- 
istic of him : — 



THE START 49 

"August 19. . . . Serjeant Floyd is taken 
verry bad all at once with a Biliose Chorlick 
we attempt to reliev liim without success as 
yet, he gets worse and we are much allarmed 
at his situation, all attention to him. . . ." 

" August 20. . . . Sergeant Floyd much 
weaker and no better. . . . Died with a 
great deel of composure, before his death he 
said to me ' I am going away I want you to 
write me a letter. ' We buried him on the 
top of the bluff one-half mile below a small 
river to which we gave his name, he was 
buried with the Honors of War much la- 
mented, a seeder post with the Name Sergt. 
C. Floyd died here 20th August, 1804, was 
fixed at the head of his grave — This man 
at all times gave us proofs of his firmness 
and Determined resolution to doe service 
to his countrey and honor to himself after 
paying all the honor to our Decesed brother 
we camped in the mouth of floyds river about 
thirty j^ards wide, a butifull evening." 

Upon the death of Floyd, Private Patrick 
Gass was made a sergeant, — a wise choice, 
determined by the votes of the men. 



60 LEWIS AND CLARK 

Besides the death of Floyd, but one other 
incident occurred in the twenty -eight months 
to affect the integrity of the corps. A man 
had deserted on August 4th; two weeks 
later he had been recaptured ; and for the 
28th there is this entry in Captain Clark's 
journal : — 

" Proceeded to the trial of Reed, he con- 
fessed that he 'deserted & Stold a public 
Rifle shot-pouch Powder & Ball ' and re- 
quested we would be as favorable to him as 
we could consistently with our Oathes — 
which we were and only sentenced him to 
run the gantlet four times through the Party 
and that each man with 9 switchies should 
punish him & for him not to be considered 
in future as one of the Party." 

So stanch were the men in their allegiance, 
and so trustworthy in the performance of 
their duties, that in only one other place in 
all the journals is there mention of an act of 
discipline. 



CHAPTER V 

WITH THE SIOUX 

Toward the end of August the party 
reached the Sioux country. Some of the 
tribes of this nation were known to be. 
friendly toward the whites, while others 
had acquired a manner overbearing and in- 
solent, inspired by the inferior numbers of 
the traders who had visited them in the past, 
and by the subservient attitude which these 
had assumed. From such tribes there was 
good reason to anticipate opposition, or even 
open hostility. But the specific nature of 
their mission made the officers desirous of a 
personal meeting with all tribes, irrespective 
of their past reputation. There is a saying 
familiar to Western folk : " Show an Indian 
that you are afraid of him, and he will give 
you reason for fear." The travelers were 
not afraid. They adopted the custom of the 
traders and set fire to the dry grasses of the 



52 LEWIS AND CLAEK 

prairie, intending that the smoke should no- 
tify the Indians of their approach and sum- 
mon them to the river. Shortly before this 
they had encountered upon the river one 
Pierre Dorion, a half-breed son of the nota- 
ble Old Dorion, whose fame is celebrated in 
Irving's " Astoria." This man was then on 
his way to St. Louis, but was persuaded to re- 
turn with the expedition to his home among 
the Sioux, there to act as interpreter and 
intermediary, in which service he proved 
useful. 

Relations with the Sioux began on the 
29th of August. The meeting was attended 
with elaborate ceremonies. One of the non- 
commissioned officers was dispatched with 
Dorion to a village twelve miles distant 
from the camp, taking presents of tobacco, 
corn, and cooking utensils. In view of the 
later history of the Sioux, and because of 
the intrinsic charm of the narrative, the 
story of this encounter is quoted at length 
from Mr. Biddle's well-edited version : — 

" August 29 th. . . . Sergeant Pry or re- 
ported that on reaching their village, he was 



WITH THE SIOUX 53 

met by a party with a buffalo-robe, on which 
they desired to carry their visitors, — an 
honor which they declined, informing the 
Indians that they were not the commanders 
of the boats. As a great mark of respect, 
they were then presented with a fat dog, 
already cooked, of which they partook heart- 
ily, and fomid it well flavored. . . . 

"August 30th. . . . We prepared a speech 
and some presents, and then sent for the 
chiefs and warriors, whom we received, at 
twelve o'clock, under a large oak tree, near 
which the flag of the United States was fly- 
ing. Captain Lewis dehvered a speech, with 
the usual advice and counsel for their future 
conduct. We acknowledged their chiefs, by 
giving to the grand chief a flag, a medal, a 
certificate, and a string of wampum ; to which 
we added a chief's coat — that is, a richly 
laced uniform of the United States Artillery 
corps, with a cocked hat and red feather. 
One second chief and three inferior ones 
were made or recognized by medals, a suit- 
able present of tobacco, and articles of cloth- 
ing. We smoked the pipe of peace, and the 



54 LEWIS AND CLARK 

chiefs retired to a bower formed of bushes 
by their young men, where they divided 
among one another the presents, smoked, 
eat, and held a council on the answer which 
they were to make us to-morrow. The young 
people exercised their bows and arrows in 
shooting at marks for beads, which we dis- 
tributed to their best marksmen. In the 
evening the whole party danced until a late 
hour, and, in the course of their amusement, 
we threw among them some knives, tobacco, 
bells, tape, and binding, with which they 
were much pleased. ... 

"August 31st. In the morning, after 
breakfast, the chiefs met and sat down in a 
row, with pipes of peace highly ornamented ; 
aU pointed toward the seats intended for 
Captains Lewis and Clark. When they ar- 
rived and were seated, the grand chief, whose 
Indian name Weucha is in English Shake 
Hand, and in French is called Le Libera- 
teur (The Deliverer), rose and spoke at 
some length, approving what we had said, 
and promising to follow our advice. ' I see 
before me,' said he, ' my Great Father's two 



WITH THE SIOUX 55 

sons. You see me and the rest of our chiefs 
and warriors. We are very poor ; we have 
neither powder, nor ball, nor knives ; and 
our women and children at the village have 
no clothes. I wish that as my brothers have 
given me a flag and a medal, they would 
give something to those poor people, or let 
them stop and trade with the first boat which 
comes up the river. I will bring chiefs of 
the Pawnees and Mahas together, and make 
peace between them ; but it is better that I 
should do it than my Great Father's sons, for 
they will listen to me more readily. I will 
also take some chiefs to your country in the 
Spring ; but before that time I cannot leave 
home. I went formerly to the English, and 
they gave me a medal and some clothes; 
when I went to the Spanish, they gave me a 
medal, but nothing to keep it from my skin ; 
but now you give me a medal and clothes. 
But still we are poor; and I wish, brothers, 
that you would give us something for our 
squaws.' 

..." They promised to make peace with 
the Otoes and Missouris, the only nations 



56 LEWIS AND CLARK 

with whom they are now at war. All these 
harangues concluded by describing the dis- 
tress of the nation ; they begged us to have 
pity on them ; to send them traders ; they 
wanted powder and ball, and seemed anx- 
ious that we should supply them with some 
of their Great Father's milk, the name by 
which they distinguished ardent spirits." 

These were the Yanktons, one of the im- 
portant tribes of the great Sioux nation. 
The Yanktons have always been known to 
the whites as a people of distinction, shrewd, 
artful, good hunters, good fighters, and alto- 
gether quite able to take care of themselves. 
In their inmost hearts, they were vain of 
their prestige amongst their inferior neigh- 
bors ; nor did they really acknowledge the 
superiority of the whites. Their speeches 
must be taken as declarations of momentary 
policy, and not of fixed principles. Further, 
they did not express the thought of the tribe 
as a whole, but only the inclinations of those 
chiefs who were for the time in authority, 
and whose word was for that time the tribal 
law. The bearing of the Yanktons, as of 



WITH THE SIOUX 57 

almost every other Indian tribe, has been 
modified or altogether changed, time and 
again, under the will of successive chiefs. 

The attention of the expedition was not 
wholly engrossed with the Indians. From 
day to day the journals are filled with care- 
ful and valuable notes upon the natural his- 
tory and physical geography of the land, 
about which nothing had as yet been written. 
Under the date of September 7th there oc- 
curs a good description of the prairie-dog ; 
and on the 17th the antelope of the West- 
ern plains was described. Both of these 
animals were then unknown to science. 

September 25th the party walked close to 
the edge of catastrophe, when they met with 
another tribe of the Sioux, — the Tetons. 
This was the first occasion for an exhibition 
of the fighting temper of the men. In de- 
scribing the encounter. Captain Clark's jour- 
nal is as usual picturesque and graphic : — 

"Envited the Chiefs on board to show 
them our boat & such curiossities as was 
strange to them, we gave them I a glass of 
whiskey which they appeared to be verry 



58 LEWIS AND CLARK 

fond of, sucked tlie bottle after it was out 
& soon began to be troublesom, one the 2d 
chief assumeing Drunkness, as a Cloaki for 
his rascally intentions. I went with those 
chiefs (which left the boat with great reluc- 
tiance) to shore with a view of reconseleing 
those men to us, as soon as I landed the 
Perogue three of their young men seased the 
cable of the Perogue, the chiefs soldr. Huged 
the mast, and the 2d chief was verry insolent 
both in words & justures declareing I should 
not go on, stateing he had not received pre- 
sents sufficient from us, his justures were of 
such a personal nature I felt myself compeled 
to Draw my sword, at this motion Capt Lewis 
ordered all under arms in the boat, those 
with me also showed a disposition to Defend 
themselves and me, the grand chief then took 
hold of the roap & ordered the young war- 
rers away, I felt myself warm & spoke in 
very positive terms. We proceeded about 
1 mile & anchored out off a willow Island 
placed a guard on shore to protect the Cooks 
& a guard in the boat, fastened the Perogues 
to the boat, I call this Island Bad Humered 
Island as we were in a bad humer." 



WITH THE SIOUX 59 

The journals for the next day say : — 
" Our conduct yesterday seemed to have 
inspired the Indians with fear of us, and as 
we were desirous of cultivating their ac- 
quaintance, we complied with their wish that 
we should give them an opportunity of treat- 
ing us well, and also suffer their squaws and 
children to see us and our boat, which would 
be perfectly new to them. Accordingly . . . 
we came to on the south side, where a crowd 
of men, women and children were waiting to 
receive us. Captain Lewis went on shore 
and remained several hours ; and observing 
that their disposition was friendly, we re- 
solved to remain during the night for a 
dance, which they were preparing for us." 

The two officers were received on shore 
by ten well-dressed young men, who took 
them up in a decorated robe and carried 
them in state to the council-house. There 
the pipe of peace was smoked, a ceremoni- 
ous dog-feast was prepared ; the chieftains 
delivered themselves of speeches, divided be- 
tween fawning adulation and flamboyant 
boasting ; and then came a sort of state 



60 LEWIS AND CLARK 

ball, which continued until midnight. The 
next morning the travelers were suffered to 
proceed. 

That was a notable encounter. The Te- 
tons have always been counted among the 
most irresponsible villains of their race, 
treacherous by first impulse, murderous by 
strongest inclination, thievish according to 
opportunity, combining the effrontery of 
Italian beggars with the boldness begotten 
by their own sanguinary history. Yet this 
determined little band faced them in the 
heart of their own land, and overawed 
them. 

For many days thereafter, parties of the 
Tetons appeared from time to time upon the 
river banks, following the boats, begging, 
threatening, doing everything in their power 
to harass the advance. No doubt they had 
already repented of their brief show of de- 
cency, and would have made an open demon- 
stration had they dared. Through those 
days the men generally encamped upon 
islands or sand-bars in mid-stream, deeming 
it wise to avoid further contact with the 



WITH THE SIOUX 61 

tribe. It was a decided relief to get beyond 
their territory. 

On October lOtli they reached the land 
of the Ricaras, a tribe whose conduct, in all 
domestic and foreign relations, was in strik- 
ing contrast to that of the Sioux, and indeed 
almost unique. The Ricaras could not be 
induced to drink whiskey ! 

Soon after the arrival at the Ricara vil- 
lages, one of the privates was tried by court- 
martial for some act of insubordination, and 
was sentenced to be publicly whipped. The 
execution of the sentence " affected the In- 
dian chief very sensibly, for he cried aloud 
during the punishment." When the matter 
was explained to him, " he acknowledged 
that examples were necessary, and that he 
himself had given them by punishing with 
death ; but his nation never whipped even 
children from their birth." Universal so- 
briety, and compassionate tears from the 
eyes of a warrior ! Surely, that tribe was 
curious. 

By the last of October the travelers came 
to the camps of the Mandans and Minneta- 



62 LEWIS AND CLARK 

rees, 1600 miles from St. Louis ; and there, 
being warned by the calendar and by cold, 
they prepared to take up winter quarters. 
Their first care was to find a suitable place 
for building log cabins and fortifications. 
With this work the men were engaged until 
November 20th, when Fort Mandan was 
completed and occupied. 

Meanwhile, the officers had sought to ex- 
tend acquaintance among the Indians, and 
to establish confidence and bring them into 
sympathy with the new conditions of govern- 
ment. So far as pledges were concerned, 
they were fairly successful ; the Indians re- 
ceived them hospitably. 

The Mandans had once been a powerful 
nation, living in numerous villages down the 
river; but continued wars with the Sioux, 
coupled with sad ravages of the small-pox, 
had reduced them to an insignificant num- 
ber, and compelled them to remove out of 
easy reach of their strongest enemies. When 
Lewis and Clark came upon them, they 
formed only a trifling souvenir of their past 
grandeur ; they had then but two poor vil- 



WITH THE SIOUX 63 

lages at this remote site, where they lived in 
a precarious hand-to-mouth fashion, having 
no allies but a small force of Minnetarees 
near by. 

But Fate had managed the matter very 
well, no doubt, in depriving these people of 
effective strength in war ; for at this time 
the head chief of the Minnetaree villages 
was a man who, given opportunity, would 
have made the river run red with the blood 
of his enemies. This was Le Borgne, a 
one-eyed old despot, of surpassing cruelty 
and bloodthirstiness, whose very name, even 
in his present position, would compel a 
shiver of apprehension. A chief such as he, 
at the head of forces matched to his fero- 
cious desires, would have changed the history 
of the Upper Missouri. As it was, he spent 
most of his villainous instincts for his own 
private amusement, — occasionally slaugh- 
tering one of his warriors who had given 
him displeasure, or butchering a couple of 
his wives whose society had grown irksome ; 
and between times he leered with his solitary 
evil eye upon the traders, contriving ways 



64 LEWIS AND CLARK 

for getting whiskey witli which to bait his 
passions. The British traders of the Hud- 
son Bay and Northwest companies had long 
before secured a strong foothold in this ter- 
ritory, and had sought by every means to 
monopolize the traffic. The ubiquitous 
French were there also, domiciled in the vil- 
lages, and some of them had taken squaws 
to wife. With schooling from such as 
these, old Le Borgne had cut his wisdom 
teeth ; he had made himseK master of many 
low tricks and subtleties practiced by white 
traders and vagabonds ; he was as skilKul 
as the best of them in making promises, and 
as skillful as the worst in breaking them. 
He was a scamp, and a blackguard. 

Lewis and Clark succeeded directly in ef- 
fecting a treaty of peace between the Man- 
dans and Ricaras, and among other small 
tribes of the region round about ; but they 
were powerless in trying to reconcile these 
people to the Sioux, who were the bogie-men 
of the plains, and who conducted themselves 
in every affair of peace or war with the ar- 
rogance of incontestable power. Not death 



WITH THE SIOUX 65 

itself could extinguish the hatred that was 
felt for them by the weaker tribes, com- 
pelled to skulk and tremble. 

Early in November the officers received a 
visit from two squaws, who had been taken 
prisoners by the Man dans, many j^ears be- 
fore, in a war with the Snake Indians of the 
Rocky Mountains. One of these squaws 
was named Sacajawea, the " Bird Woman " ; 
she had been but a child at the time of her 
capture, when she had been taken to the 
Mandan villages and there sold to a French- 
man, known as Chaboneau, who kept her 
until she reached womanhood and then mar- 
ried her. She was destined to play a con- 
siderable part in the later work of the expe- 
dition, and to lend to it one of its few ele- 
ments of true romance. 

The winter was passed busily, but for the 
most part quietly. The men suffered no 
serious deprivation. Game was abundant ; 
and one member of the party, who was a 
good amateur blacksmith, set up a small 
forge, where he turned out a variety of tools, 
implements, and trinkets, which were traded 



66 LEWIS AND CLARK 

to the Indians for corn. Everything went 
well. The officers were as busy as the men, 
and their occupations were varied and vital. 

They found difficulty in getting credit for 
the news they bore that the government of 
the United States was to be thereafter in 
fact as well as in name the controlling 
agency in administering the affairs of the 
territory and in regulating trade. To make 
the Indian mind ready to receive this lesson, 
it was first necessary to correct the evils bred 
by the earlier short-sighted rule of the Span- 
ish, and to uproot a strong predisposition in 
favor of the British traders. The Hudson 
Bay Company had been in existence since 
1670, and the Northwest Company since 
1787; and they were not inclined to surren- 
der their control of trade without a struggle. 

Aside from this task, the two youthful 
men-of-all-work were continually engaged in 
gathering material for a report upon the 
ethnology of the Upper Missouri and the 
plains. They have left to us a remarkably 
acute and accurate monograph upon the 
subject, which shows that they were even 



WITH THE SIOUX 67 

then alive to most of the questions likely to 
arise in the process of reducing the land to 
order. The data thus collected were entered 
at length in the journals ; and a fair copy 
of these was made, for transmittal to Wash- 
ington in the spring. There were maps to 
be drawn, too ; and a mass of interesting 
objects was gathered to illustrate the natu- 
ral history of the route. This material had 
to be cleaned, prepared, assorted and cata- 
logued, and packed for shipment, to accom- 
pany the report and illuminate its story, so 
that Mr. Jefferson might have a full under- 
standing of what had been accomplished 
during the first year. The five months 
spent at Fort Mandan did not drag. The 
best part of the winter's work lay in the 
attitude which was taken in dealing with the 
Indians. In every particular of behavior, 
the strictest integrity was observed. An 
Indian is as ready as any one to recognize 
genuineness. Before springtime, the Man- 
dans and Minnetarees knew that they had 
found friends. 

In March the men began boat-building. 



68 LEWIS AND CLARK 

preparatory to resuming tlieir journey. The 
batteau was too cumbrous for use toward the 
head waters of the Missouri, and it was to be 
sent back to St. Louis. To take its place, 
canoes were fashioned from green cotton- 
wood planks. Cottonwood lumber is full of 
whims and caprices, — bending, twisting, 
cracking like brown paper, so as to be 
wholly unfit for ordinary carpentry ; but 
there was no other material available. Six 
canoes were made to hang together some- 
how; and in these ramshackle structures, 
together with the two periogues, the party 
covered more than a thousand miles of the 
roughest water of the Missouri. Annoyance 
was to be expected. The boats were contin- 
ually splitting, opening at the seams, filling, 
and swamping, so that much time was lost 
in stopping to make repairs and to dry the 
water-soaked cargoes. This was merely an 
inconvenience, not an obstacle. 



CHAPTER VI 

TO THE FALLS OF THE MISSOURI 

On the afternoon of April 7, 1805, win- 
ter quarters were abandoned. Of tlie origi- 
nal forty-five men two had been lost ; but 
three recruits had been gained, — Chabo- 
neau, his squaw Sacajawea, and their infant 
son, born in February. From Fort Mandan 
fourteen of the men returned to St. Louis 
in the barge, carrying documents, collections, 
and trophies, while thirty-two went onward, 
to be separated from their kind for almost 
eighteen months. On this day Captain 
Lewis wrote in his journal : — 

" This little fleet altho' not quite so ri- 
spectable as those of Columbus or Capt 
Cook, were still viewed by us with as much 
pleasure as those deservedly famed adven- 
turers ever beheld theirs ; and I dare say 
with quite as much anxiety for their safety 
and preservation. We were now about to 



70 LEWIS AND CLARK 

penetrate a country at least two thousand 
miles in width, on which the foot of civilized 
man had never trodden ; the good or evil it 
had in store for us was for experiment yet 
to determine, and these little vessells con- 
tained every article by which we were to 
expect to subsist or defend ourselves. How- 
ever as the state of mind in which we are, 
generally gives the coloring to events, when 
the imagination is suffered to wander into 
futurity, the picture which now presented 
itself to me was a most pleasing one, enter- 
taining as I do the most confident hope of 
succeeding in a voyage which had formed a 
darling project of mine for the last ten 
years, I could but esteem this moment of 
our departure as among the most happy of 
my life." 

April 26th they came to the mouth of the 
Yellowstone River, which enters the Missouri 
1888 miles above St. Louis. They had had 
no adventure of moment ; neither was there 
cause for immediate anxiety, save as they 
observed signs of the Assiniboins. From 
the tribes with whom they had talked at 



TO THE FALLS OF THE MISSOURI 71 

winter quarters, tliey had heard stirring 
tales of this cut-throat band, which had in- 
spired the wish to pass unobserved through 
their country. This desire was fulfilled. 
There was no meeting with the Assiniboins. 
Of all the wild creatures of the Western 
wilderness, the one which could least be 
spared from the literature of adventure is 
the grizzly bear. Lewis and Clark were 
the first white men to give an account of 
this beast. Many of the Indian lodge-tales 
to which they had listened rang with the 
fame of the grizzly, as a background for the 
greater fame of the narrators. As a matter 
of course, fact and figment were inextricably 
blended in these tales ; but, while they did 
not show the animal as it was, they could 
not exaggerate its untamable courage, its fe- 
rocity, or its rugged power of endurance. 
On April 29th, Captain Lewis, with a party 
of hunters, proved the truth of all that had 
been told him upon these points, and more ; 
and upon many occasions thereafter, while 
the party was making its way from the Yel- 
lowstone country to the mountains, there 



72 LEWIS AND CLARK 

were encounters from which the men escaped 
by mere good fortune. The most critical 
adventures with the Indians were but child's 
play in comparison. Despite their boast- 
ing, the Indians would seldom venture to 
provoke a fight with a grizzly, except in 
the most favorable circumstances, and when 
strength of numbers inspired them with bra- 
vado. Reckless and headlong as wild ele- 
phants, nothing would daunt the grizzlies, 
once they had set about fighting; and so 
hardy were they as often to escape, appar- 
ently imharmed, though their vital parts 
were riddled with lead. 

Until the Rocky Mountains were reached, 
there was almost no hardship arising from 
scarcity of food. Early in May, Captain 
Lewis wrote that game of all sorts abounded, 
being so gentle as to take no alarm of the 
hunters. " The male buffalo particularly 
will hardly give way to us, and as we ap- 
proach will merely look at us for a moment, 
as something new, and then quietly resume 
their feeding. . . . Game is in such plenty 
that it has become a mere amusement to 



TO THE FALLS OF THE MISSOURI 73 

supply the party with provisions." In the 
months that followed, the men carried a 
blessed memory of that abundance. 

As they drew near to the foothills, navi- 
gation became more and more difficult. 
The river lost the sullen, muddy aspect of 
its lower course, where it flowed between 
low, sandy banks, and took the character of 
a mountain stream, walled with rock and 
filled with dangers. Then it was that the 
Cottonwood skiffs betrayed their weaknesses. 
Accidents were of almost daily occurrence ; 
and on one occasion the boat containing the 
instruments and papers was nearly lost. 
They were then more than two thousand 
miles from any place where such a loss could 
have been repaired. To go on would have 
been idle, without means for making accu- 
rate observations ; they would have been 
obliged to turn back. In the face of this 
perpetual threat, they had no resource but 
to take their chances with luck ; with the 
best they could do, they coidd not ade- 
quately safeguard themselves against calam- 
ity. For the time being, at least, they were 
rank fatalists. 



74 LEWIS AND CLARK 

On Sunday, May 26th, Captain Lewis 
left camp on foot, ascended to the summit 
of a ridge of hills near the river, and from 
the height had his first glimpse of the dis- 
tant ranges of the Rocky Mountains. This 
was about a year and a half before Pike's 
discovery. The journal entry for that day 
comes near to showing emotion : — 

" While I viewed these mountains I felt 
a secret pleasure in thus finding myself so 
near the head of the hitherto conceived 
boundless Missouri ; but when I reflected 
on the difficulties which this snowey barrier 
would most probably throw in my way to 
the Pacific, and the sufferings and hardships 
of myself and party in them, it in some mea- 
sure counterballanced the joy I had felt in 
the first moments in which I gazed on them ; 
but as I have always held it a crime to anti- 
cipate evils I will believe it a good comfort- 
able road until I am compelled to believe 
differently." 

Progress grew increasingly hard. Rapids 
were numerous, over which the boats could 
not be urged with oars ; so the men were 



TO THE FALLS OF THE MISSOURI 75 

compelled to walk upon the banks, drawing 
the craft with tow-lines. These lines were 
made mostly of elk-skin, which became soft- 
ened and rotted by the water and often 
broke under the strain, causing many acci- 
dents of a trying and serious nature. The 
banks were sometimes so rocky and precip- 
itous as to afford no foothold ; then the men 
took to the water, wading, swimming, mak- 
ing headway as they could. One extract 
from the journals will illustrate the severity 
of their toil : — 

"May 31st [a rainy day]. Obstructions 
continue, and fatigue the men excessively. 
The banks are so slippery in some places, 
and the mud so adhesive, that they are un- 
able to wear their moccasins ; one fourth of 
the time they are obliged to be up to their 
arm-pits in the cold water, and sometimes 
they walk for several hours over the sharp 
frafnnents of rocks which have fallen from 
the hills. All this, added to the burden of 
dragging the heavy canoes, is very painful ; 
yet the men bear it with great patience and 
good humour." 



76 LEWIS AND CLARK 

On June 3d they came to a point where 
the river forked ; and here, as the forks 
were of nearly equal volume, they were in 
doubt as to their route. Captain Lewis 
wrote : — . 

" On our right decision much of the fate 
of the expedition depends ; since if, after 
ascending to the Rocky Mountains or be- 
yond them, we should find that the river we 
were following did not come near the Colum- 
bia, and be obliged to return, we should not 
only be losing the traveling season, two 
months of which have already elapsed, but 
probably dishearten the men so much as to 
induce them either to abandon the enterprise, 
or yield us a cold obedience, instead of the 
warm and zealous support which they have 
hitherto afforded us. , . . The fatigues of 
the last few days have occasioned some fall- 
ing off in the appearance of the men ; who, 
not having been able to wear their mocca- 
sins, have had their feet much bruised and 
mangled in passing over the stones and rough 
ground. They are, however, perfectly cheer- 
ful, and have an undiminished ardor for the 
expedition." 



TO THE FALLS OF THE MISSOURI 77 

In order to settle the doubt, the officers 
took each one branch of the stream and pro- 
ceeded to explore it for some distance above 
the confluence, to determine its direction. 
Captain Lewis, ascending the northern 
fork, became convinced that it was not the 
main stream ; and to it he gave the name, 
which it still bears, of Maria's River. His 
warmth of youth speaks in this paragraph : 

" I determined to give it a name and iu 
honour of Miss Maria W — d [Maria Wood, 
his cousin] called it Maria's River. It is 
true that the hue of the waters of this turbu- 
lent and troubled stream but illy comport 
with the pure celestial virtues and amiable 
qualifications of that lovely fair one ; but 
on the other hand it is a noble river ; one 
destined to become in my opinion an object 
of contention between the two great powers 
of America and Great Britin, with rispect 
to the adjustment of the North westwardly 
boundary of the former ; and that it will be- 
come one of the most interesting branches 
of the Missouri." 

Meanwhile, Captain Clark had gone far 



78 LEWIS AND CLARK 

enough along the southern fork to satisfy 
himself that that was the proper course ; ^ 
and when he rejoined Captain Lewis at the 
confluence, preparations were made for con- 
tinuing the journey. It was then clear that 
the burdens of the men must be lightened ; ^ 
accordingly, considerable quantities of mev-yl 
chandise, ammunition, etc., were buried in / 
the earth, or " cached," after a method ' 
often followed by travelers of the West ; 
care being taken to preserve the stores 
against moisture. One of the periogues j 
also was left at this place, securely hidden. 

While this work was going on. Captain 
Lewis, with several of the men, proceeded to 
explore the southern stream more minutely, 
seeking to devise means for passing the 
canon at the mouth of which the party was 
encamped. Jmie 13th he heard in the dis- 
tance the roar of the Great Falls of the 
Missouri ; and, after pushing on for several 
miles, he stood at the foot of the lower cas- 
cade. Relying upon descriptions which had 
been given by the Indians at the Mandan 
villages, he now felt assured that the right 
way had been chosen. 



TO THE FALLS OF THE MISSOURI 79 

He seated himself before tlie roaring 
sheet of water, and endeavored to put a de- 
scription of it upon paper; but then he 
added helplessly : — 

" After wrighting this imperfect descrip- 
tion I again viewed the falls and was so 
much disgusted with the imperfect idea 
which it conveyed of the scene that I de- 
termined to draw my pen across it and be- 
gin agin, but then reflected that I could 
not perhaps succeed better than penning the 
first impressions of the mind ; I wished for 
the pencil of a Salvator Rosa, or the pen of a 
Thompson, that I might be enabled to give 
to the enlightened world some just idea of 
this truly magnificent and sublimely grand 
object, which has from the commencement 
of time been concealed from the view of civ- 
ilized man ; but this was fruitless and vain. 
I most sincerely regreted that I had not 
brought a chimeeobscura with me by the 
assistance of which I could have hoped to 
have done better but alas this was also out 
of my reach ; I therefore, with my pen only 
endeavored to trace some of the stronger 



80 LEWIS AND CLARK 

features of tliis seen by the assistance of 
which and my recollection aided by some 
able pencil 1 hope still to give to the world 
some fain idea of an object which at this 
moment fills me with such pleasure and as- 
tonishment." 

On the next day he went ahead, alone, 
and discovered that this was but the first of 
a long series of cascades, extending for many 
miles up the canon. It was a day of excite- 
ment. While returning to rejoin his party, 
he suffered his gun to remain for a time 
unloaded; in this plight he was surprised 
by a grizzly bear. Cut off from any other 
retreat, he was forced to take to the water, 
in which he stood to the depth of his arm- 
pits, facing the brute upon the bank and 
preparing to defend himself in a hand-to- 
hand struggle ; but, in a manner wholly out 
of keeping with his family traditions, the 
grizzly was content to walk away without 
attacking. Proceeding about nightfall, the 
young officer encountered a strange beast, 
probably a wolverine, which showed fight ; 
and a little later he was charged by three 



TO THE FALLS OF THE MISSOURI 81 

bulls from a herd of buffalo. Upon waking 
the next morning, he found a large rattle- 
snake coiled about the trimk of the tree be- 
neath which he had slept. 



CHAPTER VII 

OVER THE CONTINENTAL DIVIDE 

A MESSENGER was sGiit back to Captain 
Clark, detailing what had been discovered, 
and giving such instructions as would best 
enable him to bring up the boats. It is 
now Captain Clark's turn to bear testimony 
to the spirit of the men : — 

" June 15th. . . . Proceeded with great 
difficulty, in consequence of the increased 
rapidity of the current. The channel is 
constantly obstructed by rocks and danger- 
ous rapids. During the whole progress, the 
men are in the water holding the canoes, and 
walking on sharp rocks and round stones, 
which cut their feet or cause them to fall. 
Rattlesnakes are so numerous that the men 
are constantly on their guard against being 
bitten by them ; yet they bear the fatigues 
with the most undiminished cheerfulness." 

The severest labor was necessary in mak- 



OVER THE CONTINENTAL DIVIDE 83 

ing a portage of the falls. The remaining 
periogue was abandoned, the canoes only 
being carried on. To accomplish this, a 
large cottonwood tree was felled, its trunk 
beins: cut into short sections to serve as 
wheels for improvised carriages ; the mast 
of the periogue, cut into lengths, being used 
as axles. Before these carriages could be 
utilized, it was necessary for the men to 
carry the canoes and baggage upon their 
shoulders to the level plains above the canon 
walls, where Captain Clark had marked out 
with stakes the easiest path for a portage. 
This was a trying labor ; and the portage 
itself was not less laborious. The journal 
says : — 

" Here [on the plains above the river] 
they all repaired their moccasins, and put 
on double soles to protect them from the 
prickly-pear, and from the sharp points of 
earth which have been formed by the tram- 
pling of the buffalo during the late rains. 
This of itself is enough to render the port- 
age disagreeable to one who has no burden ; 
but as the men are loaded as heavily as 



84 LEWIS AND CLARK 

their strengtli will permit, tlie crossing is 
really painful. Some are limping with the 
soreness of their feet ; others are scarcely 
able to stand for more than a few minutes, 
from the heat and fatigue. They are all 
obliged to halt and rest frequently; at al- 
most every stopping-place they fall, and 
most of them are asleep in an instant ; yet 
no one complains, and they go on with 
great cheerfulness." 

Notwithstanding this hardship, Lewis's 
journal entry of June 25th has this fine 
bit: — 

" Such as were able to shake a foot 
amused themselves in dancing on the green 
to the music of the violin, which Cruzatte 
plays extremely well." 

^ Captain Lewis had brought along in the 
baggage a steel skeleton or framework for a 
boat, thirty-six feet in length, which he had 
planned to use in shallow water. It was to 
be completed by stretching over the steel 
ribs a covering of skins, making the whole 
water-tight by any means that might be at 
hand. This was the place for the experi- 



OVER THE CONTINENTAL DIVIDE 85 

ment. Much time was spent in collecting 
and curing skins, which, when fitted to the 
frame, were smeared with a composition of 
tallow, beeswax, and charcoal. This failed, 
however. As soon as the mixture dried, 
it fell away in flakes, and the vessel was 
entirely worthless. But Lewis wrote that 
" the boat in every other rispect completely 
answers my most sanguine expectations " ! 
Then the men were employed for some time 
in making " dugout " canoes from cotton- 
wood logs, — a weary labor, considering the 
tools they had. Not until July 15th was 
the long interruption ended, and the journey 
resumed. 

July 25th Captain Clark, who was in ad- 
vance of the main party, discovered the 
three forks of the Missouri, which were 
named the Jefferson, Madison, and Gallatin 
rivers. By the westernmost of these, the 
Jefferson, they proceeded, keeping a careful 
lookout for Indians. 

" July 27th [Mr. Biddle's edition of the 
journals]. We are now very anxious to 
see the Snake Indians. After advancin^: 



86 LEWIS AND CLARK 

for several hundred miles into this wild and 
mountainous country, we may soon expect 
that the game will abandon us. With no 
information of the route, we may be unable 
to find a passage across the mountains when^ 
we reach the head of the river — at least, 
such a pass as will lead us to the Columbia. 
Even are we so fortunate as to find a branch 
of that river, the timber which we have 
hitherto seen in these mountains does not 
promise us any fit to make canoes, so that 
our chief dependence is on meeting some 
tribe from whom we may procure horses. 
Our consolation is that this southwest branch 
can scarcely head with any other river than 
the Columbia ; and if any nation of Indians 
can live in the mountains we are able to en- 
dure as much as they can, and have even 
better means of procuring subsistence." 

By the first days of August this fear for 
the scarcity of game had become a reality ; 
they were getting beyond the summer range 
of deer and buffalo, which had been their 
chief reliance. Through their long season 
of toil they had been plentifully fed; but 



OVER THE CONTINENTAL DIVIDE 87 

they were now to know the pains of hunger, 
and the ills which follow upon a meagre 
diet. The hunters were daily reporting 
increasingly bad luck in the chase ; some 
days would yield nothing ; upon other days 
the camp would heartily welcome an owl, an 
eagle, or a bag of insignificant small birds 
of any sort, or even a woK — anything that 
had flesh on its bones. 

But these deprivations did not one whit 
abate the zeal for discovery. About this 
time they found the Jefferson Kiver to be 
formed by three minor streams, to which 
they gave the names of Philosophy, Philan- 
thropy, and Wisdom rivers, " in commemo- 
ration of those cardinal virtues which have 
so eminently marked that deservedly seli- 
brated character." It is a pity to record that 
this complimentary intention was thwarted 
by time ; but Philosophy is now known as 
Willow Creek, Wisdom is now the Big 
Hole, and Philanthropy bears the hard 
name of Stinking Water. 

Since leaving Fort Mandan, in the pre- 
ceding April, they had seen no Indians. 



88 LEWIS AND CLARK 

They were now somewhat reassured by Saca- 
jawea, the " Bird Woman," who said that 
they were nearing the site of her old home 
with the Snakes, She was as anxious as 
they for a meeting with her people, which 
she told them must soon occur. But anxi- 
ety increased as the days passed, and on the 
9th of August Captain Lewis, accompanied 
by several of the men, set out in advance of 
the rest, " with a resolution to meet some 
nation of Indians before they returned, how- 
ever long they might be separated from the 
party." 

Three days later the stream, along which 
their route had lain for so long, was shrunken 
to such a width that one of the men was 
able to stand with his feet upon opposite 
banks ; and in that posture he thanked God ; 
that he had lived to bestride the Missouri. 
Within a little time they drank from the 
icy spring that gave the rivulet its birth, ll 
They then stood upon the crest of the great 
Continental Divide, on the boundary be- 
tween the present States of Montana and 
Idaho. They had run the mighty Missouri 
to its lair ! 



OVER THE CONTINENTAL DIVIDE 89 

As if that were not satisfaction enough 
for one day, they went forward for three 
fourths of a mile, and there "reached a 
handsome, bold creek of cold, clear water, 
running to the westward." Stooping, they 
drank of the waters of the Lemhi River, 
one of the upper branches of the Columbia. 

On the following day, as they were tra- 
cing the course of this stream, they observed 
two women, a man, and some dogs, stationed 
upon the summit of a hill at the distance of 
a mile. Captain Lewis advanced, unarmed, 
displaying a flag. The women retreated at 
once ; and the man, after waiting until 
Lewis had approached to within a hundred 
paces, also disappeared in the thick brush. 
After following the trail for a mile, they 
came suddenly upon three Indian women. 
One of these made her escape ; but the 
others, an old dame and a child, seated 
themselves upon the ground and bowed their 
heads, as though expecting to be put to 
death forthwith. Captain Lewis advanced, 
took the older woman by the hand and 
raised her to her feet, at the same time dis- 



90 LEWIS AND CLARK 

playing tlie white skin of his arm, — for 
exposure had tanned his face and hands as 
dark as those of the natives themselves. 
He then gave them some trinkets, and the 
other woman being recalled, he painted 
the faces of the three with vermilion, an 
act understood by all Indians as signifying 
pacific intentions. While he was thus en- 
gaged, sixty mounted Shoshone warriors 
galloped up, armed and voicing their war- 
cry, thinking to do battle with Minnetaree 
foes, for whom they had mistaken the whites. 
They were overjoyed upon discovering the 
identity of their visitors, saluted them hear- 
tily, smoked with them the pipe of peace, 
and offered such entertainment as they had. 
They were without food, excepting some in- 
different cakes made from service-berries and 
choke-cherries, dried in the sun. 

To secure the friendly regard of these 
people, Captain Lewis tried to induce some 
of them to return with him to the point 
where he was to rejoin Captain Clark and 
the others, saying that the main party was 
bringing merchandise for trade ; and he 



OVER THE CONTINENTAL DIVIDE 91 

was at last successful in getting a goodly 
escort. 

When lie met with the men of the main 
party, they were still toiling heavily up the 
narrow channel of the Missouri, dragging 
the canoes. Sacajawea at once recognized 
the members of her tribe. A woman of 
the band ran forward to meet her, and they 
embraced with signs of extravagant joy, for 
they had been playmates in childhood. 

" While Sacajawea was renewing among 
the women the friendships of former days," 
says the journal, " Captain Clark went on, 
and was received by Captain Lewis and the 
chief, who, after the first embraces and salu- 
tations were over, conducted him to a sort 
of circular tent or shade of willows. Here 
he was seated on a white robe, and the 
chief immediately tied in his hair six small 
shells resembling pearls, an ornament highly 
valued by these people, who procure them in 
the course of trade from the seacoast. The 
moccasins of the whole party were then taken 
off, and after much ceremony the smoking 
began. After tliis the conference was to 



92 LEWIS AND CLARK 

be opened. Glad of an opportunity of be- 
ing able to converse more intelligibly, they 
sent for Sacajawea, who came into the tent, 
sat down, and was beginning to interpret, 
when in the person of Cameawait (the chief) 
she recognized her brother. She instantly 
jumped up and ran and embraced him, 
throwing over him her blanket, and weeping 
profusely. The chief was himself moved, 
though not in the same degree. After some 
conversation between them, she resumed her 
seat and attempted to interpret for us ; but 
her new situation seemed to overpower her, 
and she was frequently interrupted by tears." 



CHAPTER VIII 

THE LAST STAGE OF THE WESTWARD 
JOURNEY 

Should a water route be taken from the 
Shoshone villages, it would be necessary to 
descend the Lemhi to Salmon River; the 
Salmon would conduct them to the Snake, 
and that to the Columbia. But they were 
told that this course was impracticable. The 
Lemhi flowed in an ungovernable torrent 
through wild canons which the hardiest ad- 
venturers from this tribe had never succeeded 
in passing. The description given by the 
Indians of the land route over the mountains 
was hardly more reassuring. The easiest 
trail to be found would be rough in the ex- 
treme, strewn with rocks ; besides, snow 
would soon fall upon the heights of the 
mountains, burying the trail many feet deep, 
and perhaps rendering it impassable. The 
greatest cause for uneasiness lay in the in- 



94 LEWIS AND CLARK 

evitable scarcity of food. Even should a 
crossing of the mountains be effected, the 
men would be obliged to subsist for many 
days largely or wholly upon such roots as 
they could dig by the way. Of the provi- 
sions brought from St. Louis, — flour and 
canned stuff, — there remained barely enough 
to suffice for ten days' emergency rations ; 
and of course they could not hope to find/ 
game upon the barren mountains, particu-j 
larly at that season of the year. They were! 
just entering upon their severest trials. ' 
Captain Clark went ahead to reconnoitre, 
and found that the Indians had rather un- 
derstated the difficulties of the water route. 
To descend the Lemhi was entirely out of 
the question. Clark dispatched a messenger 
to Captain Lewis, telling of what he had 
discovered, and wrote in his journal (August 
24th) : — 

"The plan I stated to Captain Lewis if 

1 he agrees with me we shall adopt is to pre- 

\ cure as many horses (one for each man) if 

possable and to hire my present guide who I 

sent on to him to interegate thro' the Intptr. 



THE LAST STAGE 95 

and proceed on by land to some navagable 
part of the Columbia river, or to the Ocean, 
depending on what provisions we can Pre- 
cure by the gun aded to the small stock we 
have on hand depending on our horses as the 
last resort." 

While he was writing so calmly of his 
plan, he and his men were suffering from 
hunger, having only a meagre supply of fish 
and dried berries. A day or two later he 
wrote : — 

" These Indians, to whom this life is fa- 
miliar, seem contented, although they depend 
for subsistence on the scanty provisions of 
the fishery. But our men, who are used to 
hardships, but have been accustomed to have 
the first wants of Nature regularly supplied, 
feel very sensibly their wretched situation ; 
their strength is wasting away ; they begin 
to express their apprehensions of being with- 
out food in a country perfectly destitute of 
any means of supporting life, except a few 
fish." 

Horses were purchased from the Shosho- 
nes, and the men were employed in making 



96 LEWIS AND CLARK 

pack-saddles. As there was no timber to be 
obtained near by, the oars were cut up for 
boards, and these were fastened into form 
with thongs of rawhide. With the best pro- 
vision that could be made, however, it was 
apparent that a considerable portion of the 
baggage must be cached and left behind. 
At a time when the needs of the men would 
be greatest, they were obliged to provide 
themselves with least. 

The Shoshones were hospitable and kindly 
folk. Throughout these days of prepara- 
tion, the women were engaged in making 
and repairing moccasins and clothing for the 
men, and the fishermen gave to them a good 
share of the daily catch. Nor was the kind- 
ness all upon the one side. The white hunt- 
ers, with their guns, had greater success 
than the Indians, who were armed only with 
bows and arrows and lances. Share and 
share alike was the rule in the village. 
Once when the hunters brought in a deer, 
Captain Clark directed that it be given to 
the women and children, who were in an ex- 
tremity of hunger, and himself went supper- 
less to bed. 



THE LAST STAGE 97 

One o£ the older men was induced to ac- 
company them as a guide. By the middle of 
September they were deep in the mountains, 
and also deep in peril and suffering. The 
cold had a depressing effect upon the men, 
overworked and underfed as they were. For 
several days they got along somehow, with 
a few odds and ends of small game ; but on 
the 14th of September, Captain Clark's 
prevision was fulfilled, and they were re- 
duced to supping upon the flesh of one of 
their ponies. Then on the next day, — 

"September 15th. Camped near an old 
snow-bank, some of which was melted, in the 
absence of water ; and here the party supped 
on the remains of the colt killed yesterday. 
Our only game to-day was two pheasants ; 
the horses, on which we calculated as a last 
resource, began to fail us, for two of them 
were so poor and worn out with fatigue that 
we were obliged to leave them behind. 

" September 16th. Three hours before 
daybreak it began to snow, and continued 
all day, so that by evening it was six or eight 
inches deep. This covered the track so com- 



98 LEWIS AND CLARK 

pletely that we were obliged constantly to 
halt and examine, lest we should lose the 
route. In many places we had nothing to 
guide us, except the branches of the trees, 
which, being low, had been rubbed by the 
burdens of the Indian horses. . . . Wet to 
the skin, and so cold that we were anxious 
lest our feet should be frozen, as we had only 
thin moccasins to defend them. . . . We 
camped on a piece of low ground, thickly 
timbered, but scarcely large enough to per- 
mit us to lie level. We had now made thir- 
teen miles. We were all very wet, cold, and 
hungry. . . . Were obliged to kill a second 
colt for our supper." 

Of the stock of portable provisions there 
remained only a few cans of soup and about 
twenty pounds of bear's oil ; and there was 
" no living creature in these mountains, ex- 
cept a few pheasants, a small species of gray 
squirrel, and a blue bird of the vulture kind 
about the size of a turtle-dove or jay ; even 
these are difficult to shoot." 

Again Captain Clark went ahead. For 
several days he suffered extremely from hun- 



THE LAST STAGE 99 

ger and exposure ; but on tlie 20th he de- 
scended into an open valley, where he came 
upon a band of Nez Perce Indians, who gave 
him food. But after his long abstinence, 
when he ate a plentiful meal of fish liis 
stomach revolted, and for several days hei 
was quite ill. 

Matters fared badly with Captain Lewis's 
party, following on Clark's trail. On the 
day of Clark's departure, they could not 
leave their night's camp until nearly noon, 
" because, being obliged in the evening to 
loosen our horses to enable them to find sub- 
sistence, it is always difficult to collect them 
in the morning. . . . We were so fortunate 
as to kill a few pheasants and a prairie wolf, 
which, with the remainder of the horse, sup- 
plied us with one meal, the last of our provi- 
sions ; our food for the morrow being wholly 
dependent on the chance of our guns." Bear- 
ing heavy burdens, and losing much time 
with the continued straying of the horses, 
they made but indifferent progress, and it 
was not until the 2 2d that they reached the 
Nez Perce village and joined Captain Clark. 



i 



100 LEWIS AND CLARK 

Then they, too, almost to a man, suffered 
severe illness, caused by the unwonted abun- 
dance of food. From the high altitudes and 
the scant diet of horseflesh to the lower 
levels of the valley and a plentiful diet of 
fish and camass-root was too great a change.y 

Two of the men in particular had cause to 
remember those days. They had been sent 
back to find and bring on some of the horses 
that were lost. Failing to find the animals, 
after a long search, they started to overtake 
their companions. They had no provisions, 
nor could they find game of any kind. Death 
by starvation was close upon them, when 
they found the head of one of the horses that 
had been killed by their mates. The head 
had been thrown aside as worthless ; but to 
these two it was a veritable godsend. It 
was at once roasted, and from the flesh and 
gristle of the lips, ears, and cheeks they made 
a meal which saved their Hves. 

The Nez Perce villages were situated upon 
a stream called the Kooskooskee, or Clear- 
water, which the Indians said was navigable 
for canoes throughout its lower lengths ; so. 



THE LAST STAGE 101 

on September 2Gth, the party established it- 
self at a point npon the river where a supply 
of timber could be had, and began canoe- 
making. In this they adopted the Indian 
method of hollowing large logs into form by 
means of fire ; and in ten days' time they 
had made five serviceable boats, and were 
ready for departure. Meanv/hile, they had 
relied upon the Indians for a daily supply of 
food, and this had made a considerable re- 
duction of their stock of merchandise for 
barter. The Nez Perces of that and neigh- 
boring villages kept a large number of dogs, 
which were used as beasts of burden and 
otherwise, but were not eaten. The travel- 
ers bought some of these for food, and 
found them palatable and nutritious; but 
this practice excited the ridicule of the sav- 
ages, who gave to the whites the name Dog- 
Eaters, — an odd reversal of the condition of 
to-day. The men were proof against scorn, 
however, so long as the supply of dog-meat 
held out ; and when they were ready to em- 
bark, they bought as many dogs as they 
could carry, to be eaten on the voyage. 



1C2 LEWIS AND CLARK 

There was no reason to complain of the 
Nez Perces. There was a noticeable differ- 
ence, though, between the people of the sev- 
eral villages. Some were generous and high- 
minded to a degree rarely equaled by the 
members of any race, while others were 
shrewd tradesmen only. All seemed worthy 
of confidence, which was well; for it was 
necessary to put confidence in them. The 
horses that had been bought from the Sho- 
shones and brought across the mountains 
had now to be left behind, and they were 
surrendered to the care of one of the prin- 
cipal chiefs, to be kept by him until they 
should be reclaimed upon the return from 
the coast, at some indefinite time in the fu- 
ture. He discharged this trust with perfect 
fidelity. Had he failed, the consequences 
would have been disastrous. 

On October 16th, after a rapid passage of 
the Kooskooskee, the party entered the Colum- 
bia ; and from that pomt to the Pacific the 
journey was without particular adventure, 
save for the difficulty of passing numerous 
rapids and cascades, Indian villages were 



THE LAST STAGE 103 

everywhere upon the banks ; but their people 
were of a very low order, — very jackals of 
humanity ; dirty, flea-bitten packs, whose 
physical and moral constitutions plainly 
showed the debilitating effects of unnum- 
bered generations of fish-eating, purposeless 
life. Physical and moral decency usually go 
hand in hand, even in a state of nature. 
The Columbia tribes had no conception of 
either ; they were in the same condition then 
as now, mean-spirited, and strangers to all 
those little delicacies of behavior that had 
distinguished the mountain tribes. 

The passage of the Narrows, above the 
Falls of the Columbia, trusting to their fire- 
hollowed logs, demanded much daring and 
self-possession. Captain Clark wrote : — 

" As the portage of our canoes over this 
high rock would be impossible with our 
Strength, and the only danger in passing 
thro those narrows was the whorls and swills 
arriseing from the compression of the water, 
and which I thought (as also our principal 
waterman Peter Crusat) by good stearing 
we could pass down safe, accordingly I 



104 LEWIS AND CLARK 

deturmined to pass through this place, not 
with standing the horred appearance of this 
agitated gut swelling, boiling & whorling in 
every direction which from the top of the 
rock did not appear as bad as when I was 
in it ; however we passed safe to the aston- 
ishment of the Inds." 

At other times they were not so successful 
in this sort of undertaking. The canoes 
were often overset in the swift water, by 
being caught in whirlpools or colliding with 
rocks, causing great inconvenience and 
resulting in some serious losses of baggage. 
And the men were performing this arduous 
labor upon a diet of dog-meat, and almost 
nothing besides. 

No matter what difficulties presented them- 
selves from day to day, the officers never 
lost sight of the chief purpose of their toils. 
The journals of those days are replete with 
keen notes upon the country, its resources, 
and its people. Soon after passing the Falls, 
there were to be seen occasional signs of pre- 
vious intercourse between the Indians and 
the white traders who had visited the coast, 



THE LAST STAGE 105 

— the squaws would display a bit of colored 
cloth in their costumes ; a few of the men 
carried ancient guns, and occasionally one was 
decorated with a ruinous old hat or the re- 
mains of a sailor's pea-jacket. These poor\ 
people had touched the hem of the garment j 
of civilization, and had felt some of its/ 
meaner virtue pass into them. They showed 
daily less and less of barbaric manliness; 
they were becoming from day to day more 
vicious, thievish, and beggarly. The whites 
had as yet given them nothing worth having, / 

and had taught them nothing worth know- 
ing. This was but natural, considering the 
character of those who had visited the Co- ' 

lumbia region. They were not missionaries 
nor philanthropists, actuated by high desires, 
but traders pure and simple, with no thought 
but gain, and no scruples about means. 
They were not different from the pioneers of 
trade in all times and all places. 

November 6th there was a meeting with 
an Indian who spoke a few scrappy words of 
English ; and on the 7th, a day of rain andj 
fog, the men caught a far glimpse of the 



106 LEWIS AND CLARK 

Pacific, . . . "that ocean, the object of all 
our labors, the reward of all our anxieties. 
This cheering view exhilarated the spirits of 
all the party, who were still more delighted 
on hearing the distant roar of the breakers." 
The following day, as the boats proceeded 
upon the waters of the inlet, the waves ran 
so high that several of the men were made 
sea-sick. 

After eighteen months of unparalleled per- 
severance, the westward journey was done. 



CHAPTER IX 

WINTER ON THE COAST 

They had readied the coast in the dismal 
rainy season, when all the life of the region 
was at the lowest ebb of the year, and when 
comfort was hardly to be found. The ex- 
treme bitterness of Eastern winters was want- 
ing ; but the bracing tonic effect of honest 
cold was also denied them. Through many 
months they were to suffer from an uninter- 
rupted downpour of rain, driven before the 
raw sea-winds, which drenched their ardor 
and made work of any sort painful. 

For a long time they were unable to make 
further progress, because of the persistent 
storms. Their canoes had not been designed 
for service in tempestuous open water; so 
they were compelled to camp where luck left 
them, having no shelter from the weather, 
sodden through and through, hungry, cold, 
many of them ill with a low fever bred by 



108 LEWIS AND CLARK 

exposure, and only sustained by the know- 
ledge that they were at last upon the Pacific 
shore. The neighboring Indians were prac- 
tically amphibious ; no stress of weather could 
hold them in check. They swarmed about 
the camp at all times, stealing, begging, 
worrying the worn spirits of the men into 
tatters. Here, for the first time since leaving 
St. Louis, it became necessary to abandon 
conciliatory friendliness, and to offset the 
native insolence with sternness. There were 
no fights, for the Indians were too low-born 
to possess fighting courage ; but the necessity 
for constant alertness was even more trying 
than open conflict. 

For a fortnight the men were engaged in 
getting acquainted with their surroundings. 
The hunters made long trips over the hiUs 
and along the coast, and such of the others 
as could be spared from camp went tramping 
about on errands of discovery. The estab- 
lishment of winter quarters was perplexing ; 
but on the 24th of November, after a consul- 
tation of the whole party, a site was chosen 
several miles down the coast, where timber 



WINTER ON THE COAST 109 

could be got for building huts, and where, 
the hunters said, game was nearest at hand. 

To transport the baggage through the 
rough breakers was a tedious and dangerous 
undertaking. The men had to wait with 
patience for the rare hours of comparative 
calm, making headway as they could, and 
in the mean time eating and sleeping on the 
uncovered earth. Sickness increased, until 
none of the party was wholly free from it. 
Although in the midst of plenty, they were 
suffering from hunger. The Indians were 
besetting them with offers of trade, having 
large stores of game, fish, and other provi- 
sions ; but their cupidity was extreme, and, 
on account of the low state of the treasury, 
which must be conserved against many 
months of the future, but few purchases 
could be made of even the barest necessities. 
When their own hunters were unsuccessful, 
the men often went empty. 

The unintentional irony of Mr. Jefferson's 
letter of credit now became apparent. The 
trading vessels that were used to making 
yearly visits to this part of the coast from 



110 LEWIS AND CLARK 

abroad had gone away for the winter, and 
no white face was seen through all those 
weary months. Considerable comment has 
been passed upon the failure of the govern- 
ment to anticipate this contingency by send- 
ing a ship to this point to meet the travelers 
and relieve their inevitable distress. This 
failure could hardly have been the result of 
oversight ; most probably it arose from the 
wish of the government to avoid any appear- 
ance of meddling in international affairs. 
The Louisiana Territory extended only so 
far west as the Rocky Mountains : so, strictly 
speaking, the expedition had no defensible 
right upon the coast under Federal patron- 
age. There might well have been serious 
consequences had a vessel under our flag 
appeared in those waters, with such a mis- 
sion. However that may be, the fact re- 
mains that no aid was sent, and the men 
were thrown entirely upon their ability to 
care for themselves. The journals show how 
they managed. 

*' November 28th. It is now impossible to 
proceed with so rough a sea. We therefore 



WINTER ON THE COAST ill 

sent several of the men to hunt, and the rest 
of us remained during the day in a situation 
the most cheerless and uncomfortable. On 
this little neck of land we are exposed, with 
a miserable covering which does not deserve 
the name of shelter, to the violence of the 
winds ; all our bedding and stores, as well as 
our bodies, are completely wet ; our clothes 
are rotting with constant exposure, and we 
have no food except the dried fish brought 
from the falls. The hunters all returned 
hungry and drenched with rain, having 
seen neither deer nor elk, and the swan and 
brant were too shy to be approached." 

Day after day they subsisted upon this 
dried fish, mixed with sea-water. Captain 
Clark nearly lost his admirable poise. On 
the first day of December he wrote : — 

" 24 days since we arrived at the Great 
Western (for I cannot say Pacific) Ocian 
as I have not seen one pacific day since my 
arrival in this vicinity, and its waters are 
forming and petially breake with emence 
waves on the sands and rockey coasts, tern- / 
pestous and horiable." 



112 LEWIS AND CLARK 

Two days later one of the hunters killed 
an elk — the first to be secured on the west- 
ern side of the mountains ; and that was a 
holiday in consequence, though the animal 
was lean and poor enough, and hardly fit to 
be eaten. 

Curiously, the greatest trial of that life 
was the absence of real hazard. Adventure 
and danger, which make discomfort tolerable 
to such men as they, were altogether want- 
ing; in their place was nothing but a dull, 
dead level of endurance, an expenditure of 
time and strength to no apparent end. 

But by the middle of December the site 
of winter quarters was gained, and then the 
log huts began to take form. The men 
needed this consolation. Under date of the 
14th, the journal says : — 

" Notwithstanding that scarcely a man has 
been dry for many days, the sick are recov- 
ering. ... It had been cloudy all day, at 
night began to rain, and as we had no cover 
we were obliged to sit up the greater part 
of the night ; for as soon as we lay down the 
rain would come under us and compel us to 
rise." 



WINTER ON THE COAST 113 

"December 17th. It rained all night, 
and this morning there was a high wind; 
hail as well as rain fell ; and on the top of 
a mountain about ten miles to the southeast 
of us we observed some snow. The greater 
part of our stores is wet ; our leathern tent 
is so rotten that the slightest touch makes a 
rent in it, and it will now scarcely shelter 
a spot large enough for our beds. We were 
all busy in finishing the insides of the huts. 
The after part of the day was cool and fair. 
But this respite was of very short duration ; 
for all night it continued raining and snow- 
ing alternately, and in the morning, Decem- 
ber 18th, we had snow and hail till twelve 
o'clock, after which it changed to rain. The 
air now became cool and disagreeable, the 
wind high and unsettled ; so that, being 
thinly dressed in leather, we were able to do 
very little on the houses." 

" December 20th. A succession of rain 
and hail during the night. At 10 o'clock it 
cleared off for a short time, but the rain 
soon recommenced. We now covered in 
four of our huts. Three Indians came in a 



114 LEWIS AND CLARK 

canoe with mats, roots, and the berries of the 
sacacommis. These people proceed with a 
dexterity and finesse in their bargains which, 
if they have not learned it from their foreign 
visitors, may show how nearly allied is the 
cunning of savages to the little arts of traffic. 
They begin by asking double or treble the 
value of what they have to sell, and lower 
their demand in proportion to the greater 
or less degree of ardor or knowledge of the 
purchaser, who, with all his management, is 
not able to procure an article for less than 
its real value, which the Indians perfectly 
understand." 

" December 24th. The whole stock of 
meat being now spoiled, our pounded fish 
became again our chief dependence. It 
rained constantly all day, but we still contin- 
ued working, and at last moved into our 
huts." 

" December 25th. We were awaked at 
daylight by a discharge of firearms, which 
was followed by a song from the men, as a 
compliment to us on the return of Christ- 
mas, which we have always been accustomed 



WINTER ON THE COAST 115 

to observe as a day of rejoicing. After 
breakfast we divided our remaining stock of 
tobacco, which amounted to twelve carrots, 
into two parts ; one of which we distributed ; 
among such of the men as make use of it, ' 
making a present of a handkerchief to the 
others. The remainder of the day was 
passed in good spirits, though there was 
nothing in our situation to excite much 
gaiety. The rain confined us to the house, , 
and our only luxuries in honor of the season } 
were some poor elk, a few roots, and some 
spoiled pounded fish." 

The first of January witnessed the com- 
pletion of the rude fortification, which was 
named Fort Clatsop, in honor of one of the 
better of the tribes near by, — a tribe whose 
members, according to Captain Clark, " some- \i 
times washed their hands and faces." Then, | 
the labor of building at an end, life settled 
into mere routine. The hunters were con- 
stantly engaged. No matter what fortune 
they had, they could not abate their industry, 
for the persistent moisture made it impos- 
sible to keep the meat from spoiling. Other 



\ 



116 LEWIS AND CLARK 

men moved down to the shore, where they 
employed themselves in boiling sea-water, to 
obtain a supply of salt ; and others were 
busy hobnobbing with the natives, practic- 
ing such wiles as they were masters of, in 
the effort to obtain small supplies of edible 
roots. 

The officers were engaged, as at Fort 
Mandan the previous winter, bringing up 
their journals and copying them out, and in 
collecting data for a report upon the natural 
history, ethnology, and trade of the coast. 
All were living by chance. Sometimes they 
had plenty; at other times they were re- 
duced to extremities. Once they thought 
themselves very fortunate in being able to 
trade for a quantity of whale blubber which 
the Indians had taken from a dead carcass 
washed ashore near by. Captain Clark wrote 
that he " thanked providence for driving the 
whale to us ; and think him much more kind 
to us than he was to Jonah having sent this 
monster to be swallowed by us, in sted of 
swallowing of us as Jonah's did." 



CHAPTER X 

HOMEWARD : IN THE MOUNTAINS 

Before the end of January, plans were 
being formed for the homeward journey. 
The men were dressing skins and making 
them into clothing and moccasins, and curing 
such meat as they could get, so as to be able 
to vary the fish diet of the Columbia. In 
February Captain Clark completed a map of 
the country between Fort Mandan and Fort 
Clatsop, and sketched a plan he had con- 
ceived for shortening the route from the 
momitains east of the Nez Perce villages to 
the Falls of the Missouri. His sagacity in 
this was marvelous ; when it came to the 
point, his plan was found to be perfectly 
practicable, cutting off 580 miles from the 
most difficult part of the way. He was a 
born geographer ; indeed, his was a catholic, 
a cosmopolitan genius. 

The greatest cause for uneasiness now lay 



118 LEWIS AND CLARK 

in the depleted condition of the stock of 
merchandise intended for trade. On March 
16 th, when preparations for departure were 
nearing completion, there is this entry in the 
journals : — 

"All the small merchandise we possess 
might be tied up in a couple of handker- 
chiefs. The rest of our stock in trade con- 
sists of six blue robes, one scarlet ditto, five 
robes which we have made out of our large 
United States flag, a few old clothes trimmed 
with ribbons, and one artillerist's uniform 
coat and hat, which probably Captain Clark 
will never wear again. We have to depend 
entirely upon this meagre outfit for the pur- 
chase of such horses and provisions as it will 
be in our power to obtain, — a scant depend- 
ence, indeed, for such a journey as is before 
us." 

It was hard to persuade the coast Indians 
to sell the canoes that were necessary for the 
first part of the trip. The canoe afforded 
these people their chief means for getting a 
livelihood, and was valued accordingly. A 
boat and a woman were, by common consent. 



HOMEWARD: IN THE MOUNTAINS 119 

placed upon an equality of value, — certainly 
not an overestimate of the worth of the 
canoe, if one laid aside chivalry and regarded 
the squaws dispassionately. When Captain 
Lewis was compelled to give a half-carrot of 
tobacco and a laced coat in exchange for one 
of the little craft, he observed that he con- 
sidered himself defrauded of the coat. No 
doubt he had in mind the native scale of 
values. 

" Many reasons had determined us to re- 
main at Fort Clatsop until the first of April," 
says the journal entry of March 2 2d. "Be- 
sides the want of fuel in the Columbian 
plains, and the impracticability of passing 
the mountains before the beginning of June, 
we were anxious to see some of the foreign 
traders, from whom, by means of our ample 
letters of credit, we might have recruited 
our exhausted stores of merchandise. About 
the middle of March, however, we had be- 
come seriously alarmed for the want of food ; 
the elk, our chief dependence, had at length 
deserted their usual haunts in our neighbor- 
hood and retreated to the mountains. We 



120 LEWIS AND CLARK 

were too poor to purchase other food from 
the Indians, so that we were sometimes re- 
duced, notwithstanding all the exertions of 
our hunters, to a single day's provisions in 
advance. The men, too, whom the constant 
rains and confinement had rendered un- 
healthy, might, we hoped, be benefited by 
leaving the coast and resuming the exercise of 
travel. We therefore determined to leave 
Fort Clatsop, ascend the river slowly, con- 
sume the month of March in the woody 
country, where we hoped to find subsistence, 
and in this way reach the plains about the 
first of April, before which time it will be 
impossible to attempt to cross them." 

The next day the canoes were loaded, and 
in the afternoon the party took leave of Fort 
Clatsop. 

Though the return along the Columbia 
was less fraught with danger than the de- 
scent, it was much more toilsome. Going 
down, the men had taken large chances in 
shooting the rapids ; but coming back, port-^ 
age had to be made of all such places. For 
this work horses were absolutely necessary ; 



HOMEWARD: IN THE MOUNTAINS 121 

and to get a few of these from the Indians, 
who saw their chance for gain, brought the 
expedition to a state verging upon downright 
bankruptcy. Enough horses were secured, 
however, to enable them to pass step by step 
over the obstructions in their way, until at 
last the Great Falls were left behind. From 
that point they meant to proceed by land ; 
and as the canoes were of no further use, 
they were cut up for firewood, which could 
not be otherwise obtained on the treeless 
plains. 

Thus far there had been no adventures 
of note, except such as grew out of the ill- 
nature and rascality of the Indians, who 
swarmed upon the banks of the stream, 
where they were assembled for their annual 
salmon -fishing. More than once the officers 
found it necessary to use harsh measures, in 
dealing with cases of theft. In striking 
contrast to these experiences was the meeting 
with the Walla- Wallas, a short distance 
above the Falls. These people freely gave 
to the travelers from their own scant supply 
of firewood and food; and the chief pre- 



122 LEWIS AND CLARK 

sented to Captain Clark a superb white horse, 
a kindness which Clark requited by the gift 
of his artillerist's sword. After leaving this 
hospitable village, the party was overtaken 
by three young men, Walla- Wallas, who had 
come a day's journey in order to restore a 
steel trap, inadvertently left behind. 

May 5th they came again to the lower 
villages of the Nez Perces, where they had 
stopped in the preceding October to make 
their dugout canoes. By this time they were 
practically destitute of all resources save 
those of the mind. To secure food, they 
were obliged to resort to the practice of 
medicine ! Luckily, the scheme worked. 
Their patients were almost legion ; their 
fame spread like a prairie fire. Nor was 
this mere quackery. All of the Indians of 
the Western slope were more or less afflicted 
with rheumatism, inflammation of the eyes, 
and other ills incident to an outdoor life in 
a humid climate ; and the two officers, in the 
course of preparing themselves for their 
errand across the continent, had learned to 
use some of the simple remedies of the day. 



HOMEWARD: IN THE MOUNTAINS 123 

111 some cases they gave relief to tlie suf- 
ferers ; in others, wrote Captain Lewis, " we 
conscientiously abstained from giving them 
any but harmless medicines ; and as we 
cannot possibly do harm, our prescriptions, 
though unsanctioned by the faculty, may be 
useful, and are entitled to some remimera- 
tion." They were thus enabled to secure 
the day's food, and to provide a little against 
the morrow. But severe trials yet remained. 

"May 6th [after taking up the trail]. 
... It was now so difficult to procure 
anything to eat that our chief dependence 
was on the horse which we received yester- 
day for medicine ; but to our great disap- 
pointment he broke the rope by which he 
was confined, made his escape, and left us 
supperless in the rain." 

Upon falling in again (on May 8th) with 
the band of Nez Perces in whose care they 
had left their horses in the autumn, they 
found the animals to be now much scattered 
over the plain, where they had been turned 
out to graze ; but the cliief promised to have 
them collected at once. He said further 



124 LEWIS AND CLARK 

that his people had been made aware of the 
approach of the travelers, and of their being 
without provisions, and that he had a few 
days before dispatched several of his men to 
meet them, bearing supplies ; but this relief 
party had taken another trail, and so missed 
a meeting. 

This old chief and his people showed them- 
selves to be genuine friends. After two or 
three days, when their guests had explained 
their situation, and offered to exchange a 
horse in poor flesh for one that was fatter 
and more fit to be eaten, the chief was 
deeply offended by this conception of his 
hospitality, remarking that his tribe had 
an abundance of young horses, of which the 
men might use as many as they chose ; and 
some of the warriors soon brought up two 
young and fat animals, for which they would 
accept nothing in return. 

To hold speech with this tribe was awk- 
ward. *' In the first place," wrote Captain 
Lewis, " we spoke in English to one of our 
men, who translated it into French to Cha- 
boneau ; he interpreted it to his wife in the 



HOMEWARD: IN THE MOUNTAINS 125 

Minnetaree language ; she then put it into 
Shoshone, and a young Shoshone prisoner 
explained it to the Chopunnish in their 
own dialect." But the common impulses 
of humanity found expression in more di- 
rect ways, without need for interpretation. 
Whether as friends or foes, the Nez Perces 
have always been celebrated for their gene- 
rosity ; and in those hard days they seemed 
to be just in their element. They could not 
do enough to show their good will. 

The expedition went into camp at a little 
distance from this village, waiting for their 
horses to be assembled, and waiting for the 
melting of the mountain snows, which now 
rendered further progress impossible. In 
this camp they remained until June 10, 
unwilling to impose upon their hosts, and 
hence were in sore straits most of the time. 

" May 21st. On parceling out the stores, 
the stock of each man was found to consist 
of only one awl and one knitting-pin, one 
half ounce of vermilion, two needles, and 
about a yard of ribbon — a slender means of 
bartering for our subsistence ; but the men 



126 LEWIS AND CLARK 

have been so much accustomed to privations 
that now neither the want of meat nor the 
scanty funds of the party excites the least 
anxiety among them." 

Again they were reduced to a diet of wild 
roots ; but the amiable old chief discovered 
their situation, paid them a visit, and in- 
formed them that most of the horses run- 
ning at large upon the surrounding plain 
belonged to the people of his village, insist- 
ing that if the party stood in want of meat, 
they would use these animals as their own. 
Surely the noble Nez Perces deserved better 
at the hands of our government than they 
got in later years. The benefits they were 
so ready to confer in time of need were 
shamelessly forgotten. 

June 1st two of the men, who had been 
sent to trade with the Indians for a supply 
of roots, and who carried all that remained 
of the merchandise, had the misfortune to 
lose it in the river. Then, says the journal, 
" we created a new fund, by cutting off the 
buttons from our clothes and preparing some 
eye- water and basilicon, to which were added 



HOMEWARD: IN THE MOUNTAINS 127 

some phials and small tin boxes in which we 
had once kept phosphorus. With this cargo 
two men set out in the morning to trade, 
and brought home three bushels of roots 
and some bread, which, in our situation, was 
as important as the return of an East India 
sliip." 

I " June 8th. . . . Several foot-races were 
run between our men and the Indians ; the 
latter, who are very active and fond of these 
races, proved themselves very expert, and 
one of them was as fleet as our swiftest run- 
ners. After the races were over, the men 
divided themselves into two parties and 
played prison base, an exercise which we 
are desirous of encouraging, before we begin 
the passage over the mountains, as several 
of the men are becoming lazy from inac- 
tion." 
; On the 10 th they left this camp and 
I moved eastward, drawing slowly toward the 
mountains, and keeping an anxious lookout 
for hunting groimds. In this quest they 
were not successful ; all the wild creatures 
round about had suffered much in the long 



128 LEWIS AND CLARK ' 

winter, and the few they were able to secure 
were so much reduced in flesh as to be unfit 
for food. They could only push forward. 
On the 15th they came to the foothills of 
the Bitter Root Range ; and on the 17 th 
they were weU into its heart, ascending the 
main ridges. But here they soon discovered 
the impossibility of proceeding in their situa- 
tion. The snow lay everywhere to a depth 
of twelve or fifteen feet, completely hiding 
the trail. To delay until the snow melted 
would defeat the intention of getting to St. 
Louis before another winter. To go on was 
to risk losing themselves altogether. As 
they stated the question to themselves, 
franldy, it seemed like a game of tossing 
pennies, with Fate imposing the famihar 
catch, " Heads, I win ; tails, you lose." 

" We halted at the sight of this new dif- 
ficulty," says Captain Lewis. "... We 
now found that as the snow bore our horses 
very well, traveling was infinitely easier than 
it was last fall, when the rocks and fallen 
timber had so much obstructed our march." 
But with the best of fortune, at least five 



HOMEWARD: IN THE MOUNTAINS 129 

days must be spent in getting through this 
dreadful fastness. Unfamiliar as they were 
with the route, the chances against getting 
through at all were tenfold. " During these 
five days, too, we have no chance of finding 
either grass or underwood for our horses, the 
snow being so deep. To proceed, therefore, 
under such circumstances, would be to hazard 
our being bewildered in the mountains, and 
to insure the loss of our horses ; even should 
we be so fortunate as to escape with our 
lives, we might be obliged to abandon our 
papers and collections. It was, therefore, 
decided not to venture any further ; to de- 
posit here all the baggage and provisions 
for which we had no immediate use ; and, 
reserving only subsistence for a few days, to 
return while our horses were yet strong to 
some spot where we might live by hunting, 
till a guide could be procured to conduct us 
across the mountains." 

Just at that moment they were almost in 
despair. The next day two of the best men 
turned back to the Nez Perce villages, to 
endeavor to procure a guide, while the main 



130 LEWIS AND CLARK 

party moved down toward the plains, sup- 
porting life meagrely, waiting for something 
to turn up. They were quite powerless 
until help of some kind should come to 
them. 

To their infinite relief, the messengers 
returned in a few days, bringing guides, 
who undertook to conduct the party to the 
Falls of the Missouri, for which service they 
were to be recompensed by two guns. Un- 
der their care a fresh start was made, and by 
nightfall of the 26th, passing over a perilous 
trail, they had found a small bit of ground 
from which the snow had melted, leaving 
exposed a growth of young grass, where the 
horses had pasturage for the night. 

" June 27 th. . . . From this lofty spot we 
have a commanding view of the surrounding 
mountains, which so completely enclose us 
that, though we have once passed them [in 
the preceding September], we almost despair 
of ever escaping from them without the as- 
sistance of the Indians. . . . Our guides 
traverse this trackless region with a kind of 
instinctive sagacity ; they never hesitate. 



HOMEWARD: IN THE MOUNTA INS 131 

they are never embarrassed ; and so undeviat- 
ing is their step, that wherever the snow has 
disappeared, for even a hundred paces, we 
find the summer road." 

On the 29th they descended from the 
snowy mountains to the main branch of the 
Kooskooskee, where they found the body of 
a deer that had been left for them by the 
hunters, who were working in advance, — 
" a very seasonable addition to our food ; for 
having neither meat nor oil, we were re- 
duced to a diet of roots, without salt or any 
other addition." 

The first day of July found them en- 
camped at the mouth of Traveler's Rest 
Creek, where all mountain trails converged. 
It was from tliis place that Captain Clark's 
plan for a shorter route to the Falls of the 
Missouri was to be put into execution. But 
that was not all that lay in their minds. (y 

" We now formed the following plan of 
operations : Captain Lewis, with nine men, 
is to pursue the most direct route to the Falls 
of the Missouri, where three of his party 
are to be left to prepare carriages for trans- 



132 LEWIS AND CLARK 

porting the baggage and canoes across the 
portage. With the remaining six, he will 
ascend Maria's Kiver to explore the country 
and ascertain whether any branch of it 
reaches as far north as latitude 50°, after 
which he will descend that river to its mouth. 
The rest of the men will accompany Captain 
Clark to the head of Jefferson River, which 
Sergeant Ordway and a party of nine men 
will descend, with the canoes and other arti- 
cles deposited there. Captain Clark's party, 
which will then be reduced to ten, will pro- 
ceed to the Yellowstone, at its nearest ap- 
proach to the Three Forks of the Missouri. 
There he will build canoes, go down that 
river with seven of his party, and wait at its 
mouth till the rest of the party join him. 
Sergeant Pryor, with two others, wiU then 
take the horses by land to the Mandans. 
From that nation he will go to the British 
posts on the Assiniboin with a letter to Mr. 
Henry, to procure his endeavors to prevail 
on some of the Sioux chiefs to accompany 
him to Washington." 

It is hard to understand that indomitable 



HOMEWARD: IN THE MOUNTAINS 133 

humor. Here they were, just freed from 
imminent disaster, worn, half-starved, beg- 
gared, yet bobbing up like corks from the 
depths, and forthwith making calm prepara- 
tions for fresh labors of a grave kind. 



CHAPTER XI 

/ RECROSSING THE DIVIDE 

' By the route made famous as Lewis and 
Clark's Pass, Captain Lewis's party on July 
7th recrossed the Great Divide that sepa- 
rates the Atlantic from the Pacific, and upon 
the next day they again ate of the flesh of 
the buffalo. On the 16th they were at the 
Falls of the Missouri ; and two days later 
they reached the mouth of Maria's River, 
which they were to explore. 

Ten days were spent in this exploration, 
until further progress was stopped, on the 
26th, by an encounter with a band of the 
dreaded Minnetarees of Fort de Prairie, who 
had wrought such havoc among the Shosho- 
nes, — a set of roving outlaws, who held 
a reign of terror over all the tribes of the 
northwestern plains. 

Captain Lewis determined to meet these 
folk as he had met all others. He held a 



RECROSSING THE DIVIDE 135 

council with tliem, smoked the pipe of peace, 
and endeavored to explain to them his mis- 
sion. When night came, whites and Indi- 
ans camped together. Lewis knew that he 
must be on his guard, and had some of his 
men remain awake throughout the night ; 
but in the early dawn the Minnetarees, 
catching the sentry unawares, stole the guns 
of the party and tried to make off with them. 
A hand-to-hand fight followed. One of the 
men, in struggling with an Indian and en- 
deavoring to wrest a stolen gun from him, 
kiUed him by a knife-thrust. The savages 
then attempted to drive off the horses ; but 
in this they were thwarted. Being hard 
pressed, and one of their number shot by 
Captain Lewis's pistol, they were forced to 
retreat, leaving twelve of their own horses 
behind. The whites were the gainers, for 
they took away four of the captured animals, 
while losing but one of their own. The 
Indians had also lost a gun, shields, bows 
and arrows. Most of this stuff was burned ; 
but about the neck of the dead warrior, 
whose body remained upon the field. Captain 



136 LEWIS AND CLARK 

Lewis left a medal, " so that the Indians 
might know who we were." The Minne- 
tarees never forgot or forgave this meeting. 
For long years afterward they nursed the 
thought of revenge, doing what they could 
to obstruct settlement of the country. 

This encounter made it necessary to stop 
further exploration of Maria's Kiver, and to 
retreat with all speed toward the Missouri, 
before the Indians could recover, gather re- 
enforcements, and offer battle at greater 
odds. It was not to be supposed that they 
would pass by the shedding of their tribal 
blood without seeking immediate vengeance. 
The explorers had a fair start, however, and 
after hard riding reached the banks of the 
Missouri just in time to meet Sergeant Ord- 
way's party descending the river with the 
canoes and baggage that had been recovered 
from the resting place on the Jefferson, — 
a fortunate occurrence indeed. Reunited, 
the two parties hurried down the river at a 
great rate, the rapid current aiding the oars- 
men, and got out of the way before the Min- 
netarees appeared. 



RECROSSING THE DIVIDE 137 

On August 7th, after a day's cruise of 
eighty-three miles, they reached the mouth 
of the Yellowstone, where they found a note 
that had been left by Captain Clark, saying 
that he would await them a few miles below. 
He waited for several days ; but then, fear- 
ing that Lewis's party had already passed, 
he moved forward, and the two commands 
were not joined until the 12th. 

In the mean time, after the separation at 
Traveler's Rest Creek, Captain Clark's 
party, too, had found a new pass over the 
Continental Divide, — a road 164 miles in 
length, suitable for wagon travel. July 8th 
they came to the spot upon Jefferson River 
where the canoes and merchandise had been 
buried the summer before. The boats were 
raised and loaded, and Sergeant Ordway and 
his men proceeded with them down the river, 
while Captain Clark's party set out over- 
land, with the horses, to the Yellowstone. 
On this trip Captain Clark had an efficient 
guide in Sacajawea, the " Bird Woman," 
who brought him to the Yellowstone on the 
15th, at the point where the river issues 



138 LEWIS AND CLARK 

from the mountains through its lower canon. 
After traveling for four days along the 
banks, they halted to build canoes, in which 
they made the passage to the Missouri, a 
distance of eight hundred miles, reaching 
the confluence on August 3d. Aside from 
the knowledge of the Yellowstone country 
which was acquired, the only important 
event of the journey was the loss of aU the 
horses, which were stolen by prowling bands 
of Indians. This was a serious loss ; for 
they were depending upon the horses for 
barter with the Mandans, in order to pro- 
cure a supply of corn for the journey to St. 
Louis. But there was no time for mourn- 
ing. The men went into camp at a short 
distance below the mouth of the Yellowstone, 
where they occupied themselves, while wait- 
ing for Lewis's party, in hunting and dress- 
ing skins, which they meant to offer to the 
Mandans in exchange for needed stores. 

While they were thus engaged, on the 
11th they hailed a canoe passing up stream, 
that contained two men who had come from 
the Illinois country to hunt upon the Yel- 



RECROSSING THE DIVIDE 139 

lowstone. These were the first whites seen 
since April 13, 1805, a period of sixteen 
months. As a matter of course Clark was 
famished for news from the United States ; 
but what he got from the wanderers was not ! 
cheerful. 

" These two men [who had left the Illinois 
in the summer of 1804] had met the boat 
which we had dispatched from Fort Man- 
dan, on board of which, they were told, was 
a Ricara chief on his way to Washington ; 
and also another party of Yankton chiefs, 
accompanying Mr. Dorion on a visit of the 
same kind. We were sorry to learn that 
the Mandans and Minnetarees were at war 
with the Ricaras, and had killed two of 
them. The Assiniboins too are at war with 
the Mandans. They have, in consequence, 
prohibited the Northwestern Company from 
trading to the Missouri, and even killed two 
of their traders near Mouse River ; they 
are now lying in wait for Mr. McKenzie of 
the Northwestern Company, who had been 
for a long time among the Minnetarees. 
These appearances are rather unfavorable 



140 LEWIS AND CLARK 

to our project of carrying some of the chiefs 
to the United States ; but we still hope that, 
by effecting a peace between the Manclans, 
Minnetarees, and Ricaras, the views of our 
government may be accomplished." 

This meant that the solemn treaties of 
peace concluded at Fort Mandan amongst 
the several Indian tribes, under the auspices 
of the expedition, had. been broken. The 
news was displeasing, but probably not 
wholly unexpected. 

August 14th, two days after the reunion 
of the two parties, they came again to the 
home of their acquaintances, the Mandans 
and the Minnetarees. They showed these 
people every consideration ; and the swivel 
gun, which could not be used on the small 
boats, was presented to old Le Borgne, who 
bore it in state to his lodge, thinking his 
own thoughts. One of the Mandan chiefs 
joined them here for the journey down the 
river. 

Then occurred another brief conference 
with the Ricaras, with a renewal of the old 
pledges of peace and good will toward all 



RECROSSING THE DIVIDE 141 

men — excepting the Sioux. Reckless as 
they were in making promises, they, like all 
their neighbors, weak or strong, would not 
commit themselves to attempting concilia- 
tion of the Sioux. 



CHAPTER XII 

HOME 

After leaving the Ricara villages, the 
men were possessed by an ardent longing to 
get home ; and the Missouri, as though it 
had learned to know and respect and love 
them, and could appreciate their ardor, lent 
them its best aid. Upon the swift current, 
and under pleasant skies, the boats flew on- 
ward. ♦Seventy-five or eighty miles a day 
was a common achievement ; but even that 
progress did not keep pace with the speed 
of their desires. There was nothing more 
to be accomplished, no reason for lingering 
by the way ; and there was nothing to be 
guarded against, except possible trouble 
with the Tetons. As the boats passed 
through their country, these people appeared 
in large numbers upon the banks, shouting 
invitations to land ; but the officers felt 
safer in refusing further intercourse. The 



HOME 143 

Tetons were obliged to content themselves 
with trotting along upon the shore, keeping 
abreast of the boats as well as they were 
able, crying out taunts and imprecations ; 
and one, more zealous in his passion, went 
to the top of a hill and struck the earth 
three times with the butt of his gun, — the 
registration of a mighty oath against the 
whites, long since abundantly fulfilled. 

Occasionally there was a meeting with a 
trading party from St. Louis or elsewhere, 
with brief exchange of news and gossip ; 
but they were growing too eager for loiter- 
ing. On the 9th of September they passed 
the mouth of the Platte ; and on the 12th. 
they met one of their own men who had 
been sent back with the batteau from Fort 
Mandan, in April, 1805. This man was 
now returning to the Kicaras, with a mes- 
sage from President Jefferson, and an inde- 
pendent mission to instruct the Ricaras in 
methods of agriculture. A few days later 
they met with one Captain McClellan, an 
old acquaintance of Captain Clark, who told 
them that the people of the United States 



144 LEWIS AND CLARK 

had generally given them up for lost, though 
the President still entertained hopes of 
their return. 

i " September 20th. ... As we moved 
along rapidly we saw on the banks some 
cows feeding, and the whole party almost 
involuntarily raised a shout of joy at seeing 
this image of civilization and domestic life. 
Soon after we reached the little French vil- 
lage of La Charette, which we saluted with 
a discharge of four guns and three hearty 
cheers. We landed, and were received with 
kindness by the inhabitants. . . . They 
were all equally surprised and pleased at 
our arrival, for they had long since aban- 
doned all hopes of ever seeing us return." 

The next day they came to the village of 
St. Charles ; and on the 22d they stopped 
at a cantonment of United States soldiery, 
three miles above the mouth of the Missouri, 
where they passed the day. The concluding 
paragraphs of the journals must be quoted 
literally from Captain Clark : — 

" September 23rd. Took an early brack- 
fast with Colo Hunt and set out, descended 



HOME 145 

to the Mississippi and down that river to 
St. Louis at which place we arived about 
12 o'clock. We suffered the party to fire 
off their pieces as a Salute to the Town. We 
were met by all the village and received a 
harty welcom from its inhabitants &c here 
I found my old acquaintance Maj W. 
Christy who had settled in this town in a 
public line as a Tavern Keeper. He fur- 
nished us with storeroom for our baggage 
and we accepted of the invitation of Mr. 
Peter Choteau and took a room in his 
house. We payed a friendly visit to Mr. 
Auguste Choteau and some of our old 
friends this evening. As the post had de- 
parted from St. Louis Capt. Lewis wrote a 
note to Mr. Hay in Kahoka to detain the 
post at that place until 12 tomorrow which 
was rather later than his usual time of leave- 
ing it. 

"Wednesday 24th of September, 1806. 
I sleped but little last night however we 
rose early and commenced wrighting our let- 
ters Capt. Lewis wrote one to the presidend 
and I wrote Gov. Harrison and my friends 



146 LEWIS AND CLARK 

in Kentucky and sent off George Drewyer 
with those letters to Kohoka & delivered 
them to Mr. Hays &c. We dined with Mr. 
Chotoux to day and after dinner went to a 
store and purchased some clothes, which we 
gave to a t ay lor and derected to be made. 
Capt. Lewis in opening his trunk found all 
his papers wet and some seeds spoiled. 

" Thursday 25th of Septr. 1806. had all 
our skins &c suned and stored away in a 
storeroom of Mr. Caddy Choteau, payed 
some visits of form, to the gentlemen of St. 
Louis, in the evening a dinner & Ball. 

"Friday 26th of Septr. 1806. a fine 
morning we commenced wrighting, &c." 

That is the last word in the chronicles of 
the expedition, — modest, unassuming, mat- 
ter-of-fact — the word of one who had done 
a difficult thing thoroughly and well, and 
who was at the end, as he had been through- 
out, larger than the mere circumstances of 
his labor. His companion was of the same 
stalwart stuff. It is hard to choose between 
them in any essential detail of manhood. Nor 
were the officers much exalted in temper 



HOME 147 

above the men of their command. When we 
are celebrating the heroes of our national 
life, every name upon the roster of the 
Lewis and Clark Expedition deserves to be 
remembered. 

In this brief narrative, we have just 
touched the hilltops of the adventures of the 
expedition. Much of importance has been 
suggested indirectly ; much has been passed 
by altogether. Each day's work was full of 
value and had a lasting significance. 

One thing remains to be said. We must 
not forget that the undertaking was not 
primarily one of adventure ; it was an ex- 
ploration, in the broadest sense of the word. 
It was not the mere fact of getting across 
the continent and back that gave the work 
its character, but the observations that were 
made by the way. A book of this size 
would not contain a bare catalogue of the 
deeds and discoveries of those twenty-eight 
months ; nor could any number of volumes 
do fuU justice to their importance. Who- 
ever reads the journals, from whatever point 



148 LEWIS AND CLARK 

of view, is amazed by what they reveal. 
Geographers, ethnologists, botanists, geolo- 
gists, Indian traders, and men of affairs, all 
are of one mind upon this point. We must 
wait long before we find the work of Lewis 
and Clark equaled. 



CHAPTER XIII 

AFTER LIFE 

It would be a pleasant labor, and one well 
worth the pains, to record the story of the 
later years of every one of those valiant 
souls, from the highest to the lowest. But 
that may not be done here. The best hom- 
age that can be rendered to the subordinates 
is to speak of their common motive : simple- 
hearted, unselfish devotion to the interests 
of the nation, unstained by ulterior ho23e of 
private gain. A bill was passed by Congress 
in 1807, granting to the non-commissioned 
officers and privates, according to rank, a 
sum of money equal to double pay for the 
period of service, and, in addition, 300 acres 
of land from the public domain. But no- 
thing beyond ordinary pay had been defi- 
nitely pledged in advance. Clearly it was 
not the expectation of material reward which 
sustained them. 



150 LEWIS AND CLARK 

The bill passed by Congress included also 
a grant of 1500 acres of land to Captain 
Lewis, and of 1000 acres to Captain Clark. 
It is upon record that Lewis, in the spirit 
which had regulated all of his relations with 
Clark, objected to this discrimination in his 
favor. 

In March, 1804, before the expedition 
set out, the newly acquired Louisiana Terri- 
tory was divided by Congress, the dividing 
line being the 33d parallel. The southern 
portion was named the District of New 
Orleans, and the northern, the District of 
Louisiana ; this name being changed, a year 
later, to Louisiana Territory. 

On March 3d, 1807, Meriwether Lewis 
was made governor of this territory, with 
headquarters at the village of St. Louis ; 
and this office he held until he died, October 
11, 1809, at the age of thirty-five years. 

Although his service in this position was 
so untimely short, he did much toward lay- 
ing a firm foundation for the institutions of 
lawful and orderly life. According to Mr. 
Jefferson, " he found the territory distracted 



AFTER LIFE 151 

by feuds and contentions among the officers 
of tlie government, and the people them- 
selves divided by these into factions and 
parties. He determined at once to take no 
side with either, but to use every endeavor 
to conciliate and harmonize them. The even- 
handed justice he administered to all soon 
estabHshed a respect for his person and 
authority, and perseverance and time wore 
down animosities, and reunited the citizens 
again into one family." 

In the newly organized society, events 
rapidly took form. Governor Lewis, with 
two others (judges of the court), constituted 
the territorial legislature, which concerned 
itself at once with matters of development, 
— providing for the estabhshment of towns, 
laying out roads, etc. In 1808 the laws of 
Louisiana Territory were collected and pub- 
bushed, under the supervision of the legisla- 
ture. This was the first book printed in 
St. Louis. A post-office was established also 
in 1808, and soon afterward the first news- 
paper api^eared. From a mere frontier 
trading settlement, whose conduct was regu- 



152 LEWIS AND CLARK 

lated by untamed impulses, St. Louis was 
being put in the way of its present great- 
ness. 

Aside from these purely administrative 
duties, the governor was further occupied in 
endeavoring to secure permanent peace with 
the Indians, and to prepare them for receiv- 
ing the advantages of civilized life. This 
was his largest thought, growing naturally out 
of all that he had seen and done in the years 
preceding ; and in it he was supported and 
inspired by continued association with Cap- 
tain Clark, who had been appointed Indian 
agent for the territory. He had plenty to 
do ; and in such intervals as could be found, 
he was preparing for publication the history 
of his travels. 

The manner of his death is not exactly 
known. Although several writers have given 
their best efforts to erasing what they seem 
to consider a blot upon his reputation, the 
weight of opinion appears to sustain Mr. 
Jefferson's statement that he committed sui- 
cide while affected by hypochondria. Mr. 
Jefferson wrote in his memoir : — 



AFTER LIFE 153 

" Governor Lewis had from early life been 
subject to hypochondriac affections. It was 
a constitutional disposition in all the nearer 
branches of the family of his name, and was 
more immediately inherited by him from his 
father. They had not, however, been so 
strong as to give uneasiness to his family. 
While he lived with me in Washington I 
observed at times sensible depressions of 
mind ; but, knowing their constitutional 
source, I estimated their course by what I 
had seen in the family. During his Western 
expedition, the constant exertion which that 
required of all the faculties of body and 
mind suspended these distressing affections ; 
but after his estabhshment at St. Louis in 
sedentary occupations, they returned to him 
with redoubled vigor and began seriously to 
alarm his friends. He was in a paroxysm 
of one of these when his affairs rendered it 
necessary for him to go to Washington." 

He proceeded upon this journey, and was 
crossing through Tennessee when death over- 
took him, at the cabin of a backwoodsman 
where he had stopped for the night. Some 



154 LEWIS AND CLARK 

of the circumstances point to murder, others 
to suicide ; the truth is conjectural. What 
does it matter, after all? He had lived 
largely ; had done a man's work ; he has a 
noble place in history. 

A better fortune was in store for Captain 
Clark. He was destined for long and hon- 
orable service in public life, and a fair old 
age. 

On the 12th of March, 1807, a few days 
following Captain Lewis's appointment as 
governor of Louisiana Territory, Captain 
Clark was commissioned by President Jef- 
ferson as brigadier-general of the territorial 
militia, and as Indian agent. Dr. Coues 
says in his excellent biographical sketch that 
" in those days this title was not synonymous 
with ' thief,' and the position was one of 
honor, not to be sought or used for dishonest 
purposes." Then William Clark was the 
man for the place. Throughout his public 
life there is no stain of any sort upon his 
name. With his strong, decisive, straight- 
forward character, which would not suffer 
him to yield a jot in his ideas of right and 



AFTER LIFE 155 

wrong, he must have excited jealousies and 
made some enemies ; but none of these had 
the hardihood to speak agamst his integrity. 
His best work was accomplished as Indian 
agent. In that position he was in fact and 
in name the foster-father of all the tribes 
who lived in the territory he had helped to 
explore. It devolved upon him to acquaint 
the Indians with the nature and purposes 
of our government, and to bring them into 
obedience to its laws. More than this, he 
had a large task before him in endeavoring 
to reconcile the traditional enmities of the 
tribes one against another. He succeeded 
well. He got the confidence of the natives, 
and kept it ; from fearing his power, most 
of them came to revere the man. When all 
is said of the Indians, — of their savage 
craft, their obliquity of moral vision, their 
unsparing cruelty, and their utter remissness 
in most matters of behavior, the fact remains 
that they know how to appreciate candor 
and honor, and will respond to it as well as 
they are able. They are slow to believe in 
wordy protestations : they must have signs 



156 LEWIS AND CLARK 

more tangible. They will not trust all men 
of white complexion merely because they 
have found one trustworthy ; each man must 
prove himself and stand for himself. Wil- 
liam Clark gave them a rare exhibition of up- 
right, downright manliness, and they learned 
to respect and love him. He was soon cele- 
brated from St. Louis to the Pacific, and was 
called by the name " Red-Head." To this 
day, old men of the Rocky Mountain tribes 
speak of him with fondness, saying that our 
government has never shown another like 
him. 

He was a man of iron ; his was an iron 
rule. In that time, Indian affairs were com- 
paratively free from the modern bureaucratic 
control ; the agent devised and followed his 
own plans, unhampered by jealous superiors. 
It has been said that Clark's office was that 
of an autocrat, a condition too dangerous 
to be generally tolerated. Clark was indeed 
an exception. The most absolute power 
could be intrusted to him with implicit con- 
fidence that it would not be abused. The 
Indians themselves, who were the most di- 



AFTER LIFE 157 

rectly concerned, did not rebel against his 
unbending authority. If he was stern, ex- 
acting the utmost, and holding them to a 
strict accountability for violations of law, 
they knew that his least word of promise 
was certain of fulfillment. They did not find 
his ride too onerous under those conditions. 
While he held sway, the Western Indian 
country was in an unequaled state of order 
and decency. 

Not the least of our debts to Captain 
Clark lies in the fact that it was he who 
brought the journals of the great expedition 
to public view. Captain Lewis had not been 
able to finish this work before his death; 
most of the details of arrangement for pub- 
lication fell to his surviving companion, 
with the admirable editorial supervision of 
Nicholas Biddle. It is often regretted that 
editorial revision of the manuscripts was con- 
sidered necessary ; for what was thus gained 
sometimes in clearness and brevity of state- 
ment was more than lost in delicious naivete. 
Mr. Biddle did his part thoroughly, sympa- 
thetically ; and it was he who succeeded in 



158 LEWIS AND CLARK 

finding a publisher, — a matter hard to ac- 
complish in that time, troubled as it was 
with war and with political and commercial 
uncertainty. The authentic history did not 
appear until the year 1814. 

Meanwhile, Captain Clark had passed to 
fresh honors. Following the death of Gov- 
ernor Lewis, Benjamin Howard was ap- 
pointed as his successor. In 1812 the name 
of the territory was changed to Missouri ; 
and in 1813 Captain Clark was appointed by 
President Madison as its governor. After 
being reappointed by Madison in 1816 and 
1817, and by Monroe in 1820, he surren- 
dered his office upon the admission of Mis- 
souri to statehood, when a governor was 
elected by vote of the people. In 1822 he 
was named by President Monroe to be Su- 
perintendent of Indian Affairs, and this post 
he held for sixteen years thereafter, until his 
death. 

He died as a man of his make would wish 
to die. He was sixty-eight years of age, but 
still in harness and able to do his work. He 
passed quietly away at the home of his eldest 



AFTER LIFE 159 

son, Meriwether Lewis Clark, in St. Louis, 
on the first day of September, 1838. 

And they took of the fruit of the land in 
their hands, and brought it down unto us, 
and brought us word again, and said, It is 
a good land which the Lord our God doth 
give us. 



i< — 



ElectrotyPed and printed by H. O. Houghton <5y* Co, 
Cambridge, Mass., U. S. A. 



